Common Contaminants in Residential Drinking Water

Hello World!  Welcome Friends!  Just because your home drinking water looks clean and clear doesn’t necessarily mean that it is, and the same applies to water that tastes fine. You may feel you’re better off not knowing what all might be in your drinking water, but that lack of knowledge could negatively impact your overall health. Filtration systems are a great way to improve your home’s drinking water, but it’s also good to know just what you’re filtering out and how it can harm you.

Common Contaminants in Drinking Water

Source

Fecal Matter

Starting off our list is both human and animal fecal matter, specifically Cryptosporidium and Giardia lamblia, which are both found in private wells. Common symptoms that your home’s water contains these contaminants are cramping and gastrointestinal sickness.

Lead

Even small traces of lead in drinking water can trigger health problems. How lead finds its way into your water is through corroded pipes and from natural deposits. How long the issue has existed without intervention, how much lead exists in the water and the overall temperature of the water determines how bad the problem can become.

Legionella

One thing to note about Legionella bacteria is the fact that it’s a contaminant that happens naturally, a fact that doesn’t lessen its overall impact on your health. When exposed to the bacteria, it can cause what’s known as Legionnaires’ disease, which settles in the lungs. Specifically, the way this contaminant can trigger a lung infection or disease is when contaminated water goes down the wrong pipe while you’re drinking. Those most-commonly impacted demographics include the elderly, people who smoke, those with a weakened immune system and anyone with a severe lung condition.

Pharmaceuticals

If you live near a facility that produces veterinary, therapeutic or prescription pharmaceuticals, there’s a chance that some of those pharmaceuticals can find their way into your drinking water. What happens is that some manufacturers don’t do a good job when it comes to disposal, or they have poor control methods, both of which can lead to unintentional, yet avoidable water contamination.

Nitrate

Rural homeowners who get their water from private water systems should be aware that nitrate can contaminate their water if it’s not carried away with surface runoff or absorbed by plants. Manure storage, septic systems and fertilizers can bleed nitrate into drinking water, and anyone exposed to it can contract a blood condition known as methemoglobinemia.

Pesticides

Any pesticides that are allowed to travel through sewers can find their way to wastewater treatment plants. What happens is they aren’t treated during detoxification, meaning they can make their way into drinking water. One of the biggest dangers of pesticides is the fact that there aren’t very many tests that can successfully detect the hundreds of pesticide compounds. There’s also the fact that there isn’t extensive knowledge on just how pesticides in drinking water can impact our bodies and health.

Chlorine

Chlorine is used in both pool water and drinking water to take care of any impurities that exist in water. While this sounds all well and good for the quality of drinking water, the issue is that not all chlorine is properly extracted from water before it finds its way to faucets. Any chlorine that exists in drinking water can lead to certain cancers.

In addition, colorless chemicals and industrial solvents found in water can also lead to cancer.  Similar to the chemicals found at Camp Lejeune.  Be sure to file a Camp Lejeune Water Contamination claim if you lived on base and think you may have been exposed.

Cysts

A microbial parasite, cysts are often found in rivers and lakes that use sewage, feedlot runoff and septic tanks to make their way into residential drinking water. One of the biggest problems with this particular contaminant is the fact that it can persist even after the decontamination process and remain in water.

Do your health a favor and invest in a quality home water filtration system to keep these and other contaminants out of your drinking and cooking water. Your water is sure to taste, feel and smell better.

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