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ZDNET's key takeaways
- One in five households has known water issues.
- More than 60% have never had their water tested.
- Many homeowners are investing in whole-home treatment technology.
A few years back, my wife and I received an ominous yet nonchalant letter from our town, alerting us to the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in our drinking water. After an embarrassingly long time trying to sound out the words like toddlers in preschool, we were able to boil the message down to its essence:
There are chemical substances in the water, more of them than we'd like, and we're working on it.
Super. Thanks for the heads up.
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By now, a lot of us are familiar with the acronym PFAS to shorten the alphabet soup of the per- and polyfluoro flavor of molecules. If not, you might be aware of their code name: "The Forever Chemicals." We'll save the deep dive on PFAS for a future research study, and I'll hold the update on our personal saga until the end of the article, but some recent findings from research firm Habitelligence suggest that we're not alone in our water struggles.
Out of a sample of 576 households spread evenly across the country, the research shows that the presence of known water issues -- those warranting notification by a government agency, public utility, or other authority -- varies among regions. While only one in 10 from the Pacific and Mountain West region cited problems, more than a third of Southwest households had been notified of issues with their water.
Households with known water issues
So much of water quality is location and environmentally dependent, not to mention impacted by the source of the water -- whether a public/municipal source, or private well (about 15% of respondents reported a private well as their main water source).
This environmental variation opens the door to a staggering range of potential issues. From minerals like iron, lead, and arsenic, to nitrates, PFAS, and bacterial contaminants, there is no shortage of unwelcome ingredients to consider, and many of them are colorless and odorless.
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The reality, though, is that whether our water looks and tastes like it came from a natural spring in the Swiss Alps or a tepid pond in the woods, most of us have no concrete information one way or another.
What are we (not) testing our water for?
Unlike with other home systems (e.g. solar panels, energy-efficient heat pumps), investments in water treatment carry no discernible financial return, but the peace-of-mind factor gets ratcheted up to a new level for some of these issues. For instance, hard water (dissolved minerals like calcium and magnesium) may tamp down your soap's lather potential, dry out your hair, or even corrode your pipes. But other substances like lead, arsenic, and high levels of PFAS pose major health risks that would read like a Happy Fun Ball warning label if listed.
Three questions to ask
While a lot of these issues can't be solved with an off-the-shelf water pitcher/filter, the good news is that there is a growing list of innovative engineered technology that can help us rest easier. It all starts with three questions:
- What are we dealing with?
- How do we want to treat it?
- Where do we want to treat it?
What: The research shows that most people need a reason to even start the process and seek an answer to the first question. Whether it's an official notification like the one I received (e.g. PFAS, bacteria), a noticeable issue (color, odor, taste), or just a good old-fashioned hunch, testing is the first step. If there is a concern about one specific issue or one family of issues, mail-in test kits can be effective, even if the results can take weeks. For a more comprehensive view into multiple problem areas, homeowners will want to seek out a professional water treatment company.
How: There are myriad ways to address the various water challenges a household can face, often involving multiple methods for the same problem. At the risk of oversimplifying, treatment technologies can be put into three categories based on how aggressive a household might want to get:
Conditioning: For when you have issues with water acidity or hardness and want to adjust the chemistry (pH neutralizers, softeners). This treatment won't remove contaminants, but is aimed at increasing the longevity of appliances and reducing wear to the plumbing infrastructure.
Filtration: For when you want to remove or reduce the presence of specific contaminants. Using technologies like activated carbon filtration, specialty resins, ion exchange, and aeration, these treatments can remove or reduce contaminants like chlorine, pesticides, PFAS, metals, and radon, as well as improve taste and odor.
Purification: For when you need to deal with microbes, fully dissolved, or microscopic contaminants, or just want near-bottled water quality. Key technologies include reverse osmosis, UV disinfection, and advanced membranes. These carry a higher cost and maintenance, but deliver the highest level of purity.
Where: Beyond the off-the-shelf product options, there are generally two places to treat water: where you drink it, and where it enters your home. Point-of-use (POU) systems are typically installed under the kitchen sink to remove unwanted particles, either very small or microscopic, before they impact the drinking water. Point-of-entry (POE) systems, on the other hand, are installed on the water main and work their magic before the water even enters your pipes.
These systems require professional installation and constitute the highest level of investment, but also bring the highest and most widespread level of protection, sending treated water to every faucet and shower head in the house. It's also important to note that this level of treatment extends beyond just drinking water. Certain gases and chemicals (radon, VOCs, chlorine) can sometimes be more problematic when inhaled during a shower than when ingested in drinking water.
Looking ahead
Only a few treatments come in both point-of-use and point-of-entry options, but the engineering and technology are on our side as we learn more about our water and make the decision to improve it. For those just looking into this, national resources like the EPA consumer confidence reports can provide a good starting point, but typically, local town and state water reports provide the most relevant testing guidance and resources.
As for our home water saga, we have a little bit of good news and a whole lot of TBD news. On the positive side, our town's investment in filtration technology at the municipal level paid off as we're now slightly below the new EPA threshold for the most commonly targeted forever chemical (PFOA), but that threshold continues to trend down as the science tells us that if you can measure it at all, it's too much.
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Moreover, as we look into this further, I find myself wanting more information about what's coming out of our faucets. As a homeowner and a home tech enthusiast, I hope to see progress in smart monitoring technology at the household level, which would help accelerate visibility into potential water issues, even if that might be a ways off.
The bottom line is that water is fairly high on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and improving its quality brings benefits beyond just better-tasting coffee. I drink a gallon a day, and I'm not stingy with my shower time, so keeping a closer eye on our water seems like it deserves a higher slot on the household priority list.
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