IridiumBlueWater

The Environmental Working Group's analysis of nearly 20 million drinking water tests conducted by water suppliers nationwide between 2004 and 2009 revealed hundreds of pollutants in U.S. tap water. For most, the government has set no safety-based legal limits. Many other contaminants were found in drinking water at concentrations above government-issued advisory health guidelines.

EWG obtained this test data from state water authorities over the past three years, compiling it into the largest database of tap water quality in existence. EWG’s analysis shows wide variations in water quality. Generally, large water utilities test more often and supply water with lower levels of common pollutants than smaller utilities. But even some large utilities’ water is contaminated with multiple pollutants at levels that exceed government health guidelines.  

More than 20 percent of private domestic wells sampled nationwide contain at least one contaminant at levels of potential health concern, according to a study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). 

About 43 million people - or 15 percent of the Nation's population - use drinking water from private wells, which are not regulated by the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

USGS scientists sampled about 2,100 private wells in 48 states and found that the contaminants most frequently measured at concentrations of potential health concern were inorganic contaminants, including radon and arsenic. These contaminants are mostly derived from the natural geologic materials that make up the aquifers from which well water is drawn.

The bottled water industry promotes an image of purity, but comprehensive testing by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) reveals a surprising array of chemical contaminants in every bottled water brand analyzed, including toxic byproducts of chlorination in Walmart’s Sam’s Choice and Giant Supermarket's Acadia brands, at levels no different than routinely found in tap water. Several Sam's Choice samples purchased in California exceeded legal limits for bottled water contaminants in that state. Cancer-causing contaminants in bottled water purchased in 5 states (North Carolina, California, Virginia, Delaware and Maryland) and the District of Columbia substantially exceeded the voluntary standards established by the bottled water industry.

Unlike tap water, where consumers are provided with test results every year, the bottled water industry is not required to disclose the results of any contaminant testing that it conducts.  Instead, the industry hides behind the claim that bottled water is held to the same safety standards as tap water. But with promotional campaigns saturated with images of mountain springs, and prices 1,900 times the price of tap water, consumers are clearly led to believe that they are buying a product that has been purified to a level beyond the water that comes out of the garden hose.

To the contrary, our tests strongly indicate that the purity of bottled water cannot be trusted. Given the industry's refusal to make available data to support their claims of superiority, consumer confidence in the purity of bottled water is simply not justified.

Laboratory tests conducted for EWG at one of the country’s leading water quality laboratories found that 10 popular brands of bottled water, purchased from grocery stores and other retailers in 9 states and the District of Columbia, contained 38 chemical pollutants altogether, with an average of 8 contaminants in each brand. More than one-third of the chemicals found are not regulated in bottled water. In the Sam's Choice and Acadia brands levels of some chemicals exceeded legal limits in California as well as industry-sponsored voluntary safety standards. Four brands were also contaminated with bacteria.

Two of 10 brands tested, Walmart's and Giant's store brands, bore the chemical signature of standard municipal water treatment — a cocktail of chlorine disinfection byproducts, and for Giant water, even fluoride. In other words, this bottled water was chemically indistinguishable from tap water. The only striking difference: the price tag.

Bottled water means garbage:

Bottled water produces up to 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year. According to Food and Water Watch, that plastic requires up to 47 million gallons of oil per year to produce. And while the plastic used to bottle beverages is of high quality and in demand by recyclers, over 80 percent of plastic bottles are simply thrown away.    That assumes empty bottles actually make it to a garbage can. Plastic waste is now at such a volume that vast eddies of current-bound plastic trash now spin endlessly in the world's major oceans. This represents a great risk to marine life, killing birds and fish which mistake our garbage for food.   Thanks to its slow decay rate, the vast majority of all plastics ever produced still exist somewhere.

To remove impurities from water by distillation, the water is usually boiled in a chamber causing water to vaporize, and the pure (or mostly pure) steam leaves the non volatile contaminants behind. The steam moves to a different part of the unit and is cooled until it condenses back into liquid water.  The resulting distillate drips into a storage container.  Salts, sediment, metals - anything that won't boil or evaporate - remain in the distiller and must be removed.  Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a good example of a contaminant that will evaporate and condense with the water vapor. A vapor trap, carbon filter, or other device must be used along with a distiller to ensure the more complete removal of contaminants. The drinking of distilled water which lacks naturally occurring minerals has raised some health concerns since the body will try to balance electrically the water and therefore draw the minerals from the body.  This can be determental to the overall Ph of the body as well.

Some of the disadvantages of Distillation include:

• Distillation takes time to purify the water, It can take two to five hours to make a gallon of distilled water.
• Distillers uses electricity all the time the unit is operating
• Distillers requires periodic cleaning of the boiler, condensation compartment, and storage tank.
• Countertop Distillation is one of the more expensive home water treatment methods, using $0.25 to $0.35 of electrical energy per gallon of distilled water produced - depending on local electricity costs.  The cost of ownership is high because you not only have the initial cost of the distillation unit to consider, but you also must pay for the electrical energy for each gallon of water produced. If it cost you $0.25 to distill each gallon, and you purified 10 gallons per week, you would pay $130 for your 520 gallons of distilled water each year.
• Most home distillation units require electricity, and will not function in an emergency situation when electrical power is not available.

In the process of Reverse Osmosis (RO), water pressure is used to force water molecules through a membrane that has extremely tiny pores, leaving the larger contaminants behind. Purified water is collected from the "clean" side of the membrane, and water containing the concentrated contaminants is flushed down the drain from the "contaminated" side.  The average RO system is a unit consisting of a sediment/chlorine pre filter, the reverse-osmosis membrane, a water storage tank, and an activated-carbon post filter.  They cost from about $150 to over $1,500 for point of use systems.

Some of the disadvantages of Reverse Osmosis include:

• Point of Use RO units make only a few gallons of treated water a day for drinking or cooking. 
• RO systems waste water. Two to four gallons of "waste" water are flushed down the drain for each gallon of filtered water produced. 
• Some pesticides, solvents and other volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) are not completely removed by RO to reduce these contaminants.
• Many conditions affect the RO membrane's efficiency in reducing the amount of contaminant in the water.  These include the contaminant concentration, chemical properties of the contaminants, the membrane type and condition, and operating conditions (like pH, water temperature, and water pressure).
• Although RO filters do not use electricity, they depend on a relatively high water pressure to force the water molecules through the membrane.  In an emergency situation where water pressure has been lost, these systems will not function.
• RO systems require maintenance.  The pre and post filters and the reverse osmosis membranes must be changed according to the manufacturer's  recommendation, and the storage tank must be cleaned periodically.
• Damaged membranes are not easily detected, so it is hard to tell if the system is functioning normally and safely. Microscopic parasites (including viruses) are usually removed by properly functioning RO units, but any defect in the membrane would allow these organisms to flow undetected into the "filtered" water - they are not recommended for use on biologically unsafe water.

The formation of oxygen into ozone occurs with the use of energy. This process is carried out by an electric discharge field as in the CD-type ozone generators (corona discharge simulation of the lightning), or by ultraviolet radiation as in UV-type ozone generators (simulation of the ultra-violet rays from the sun). In addition to these commercial methods, ozone may also be made through electrolytic and chemical reactions.   

Ozone is a naturally occurring component of fresh air. It can be produced by the ultraviolet rays of the sun reacting with the Earth's upper atmosphere (which creates a protective ozone layer), by lightning, or it can be created artificially with an ozone generator. The ozone molecule contains three oxygen atoms whereas the normal oxygen molecule contains only two.  Ozone is a very reactive and unstable gas with a short half-life before it reverts back to oxygen. Ozone is the most powerful and rapid acting oxidizer man can produce, and will oxidize all bacteria, mold and yeast spores, organic material and viruses given sufficient exposure.    Some of the disadvantages of using Ozone include: • Ozone treatment can create undesirable byproducts that can be harmful to health if they are not controlled (e.g., formaldehyde and bromate).   • The process of creating ozone in the home requires electricity.  In an emergency with loss of power, this treatment will not work. • Ozone is not effective at removing dissolved minerals and salts.  

Some of the disadvantages of Reverse Osmosis include:

• Point of Use RO units make only a few gallons of treated water a day for drinking or cooking. 
• RO systems waste water. Two to four gallons of "waste" water are flushed down the drain for each gallon of filtered water produced. 
• Some pesticides, solvents and other volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) are not completely removed by RO to reduce these contaminants.
• Many conditions affect the RO membrane's efficiency in reducing the amount of contaminant in the water.  These include the contaminant concentration, chemical properties of the contaminants, the membrane type and condition, and operating conditions (like pH, water temperature, and water pressure).
• Although RO filters do not use electricity, they depend on a relatively high water pressure to force the water molecules through the membrane.  In an emergency situation where water pressure has been lost, these systems will not function.
• RO systems require maintenance.  The pre and post filters and the reverse osmosis membranes must be changed according to the manufacturer's  recommendation, and the storage tank must be cleaned periodically.
• Damaged membranes are not easily detected, so it is hard to tell if the system is functioning normally and safely. Microscopic parasites (including viruses) are usually removed by properly functioning RO units, but any defect in the membrane would allow these organisms to flow undetected into the "filtered" water - they are not recommended for use on biologically unsafe water.