An Analysis of City Water and Community Water Supplies
In this continuing series of Blogs we are discussing water,
water quality and various treatment methods that city and community water
supplies use to treat their water before it is delivered to your home. Today we are looking at the city of Howell,
MI and the community wells that supply water to its 9400 residents.
Communities that use well water as their primary source of
water have many different issues to address as it relates to their water. As discussed in previous blog posts, the
water chemistry from every well can vary widely. Most of these community well supplies will
have several different water wells in which their water is drawn from. The
number of wells needed is dependent on the size of the community and water
volume needed to service that community. This takes into account average daily
usage per household and also peak periods of water usage along with the
potential usage for fire fighting.
The city of Howell has six different wells from which water
is drawn. These wells are up to 400 feet
underground. This is done to protect the
water supply, to assure adequate water supply for future use and to assure some
stability in the water chemistry. IE:
Hardness, Iron, Manganese, Arsenic, Radium, Etc. The Howell water treatment facility has a
620,000 gallon ground storage reservoir along with a 300,000 elevated storage
tank to service its 9400 residents and fire fighting needs.
The Howell water treatment plant employs a method of “Lime
Softening” to treat the water. Lime water
(Calcium Hydroxide) is introduced into the water supply at the treatment plant which
reacts with the Calcium and Magnesium (Hardness) in the water causing it to “floc”
or fall out of the water. The hardness
falls out as scale and then is filtered out of the water. This method of water treatment has actually
been used since the 1800,s and was originally used in London, England to treat
water drawn from the Thames River. Some of
the primary reasons this method is used by community water supplies today are to
control Arsenic, Iron, Manganese and Radium that may be present in the water
supply as it is drawn from the ground. Sulfuric
Acid and Polyphosphates are added, after initial treatment, to control the PH
and stabilize the water. Chlorine is added,
as a disinfectant, as the water is sent to the reservoir tanks.
All community and municipal water supplies have to abide by
the National Drinking Water Standards set forth by the federal government. Arsenic is one of many contaminants regulated by
these standards as are chemicals used to treat the water supply along with the
by-products created when using disinfecting additives like chlorine. Fluoride additives such as Hydrofluosilicic Acid have become an increasing topic of discussion
and concern as many current studies have shown negative long term effects from
these additives. Many cities across the
US are now choosing to not add fluoride supplements to their water supplies.
The Howell water treatment plant
adds calcium (hardness) back into the water supply before it leaves the treatment
plant. This brings the hard water levels back up to 6-7 grains per gallon. Six
to seven grains per gallon of hardness is low compared to the 15 to 30+ gpg of
hard water most homeowners have that live on a private well in Livingston County. Although 6-7 gpg of hardness may seem
relatively low on the hardness scale, with a family of three people, on water
that is 6gpg of hardness, in one year that family will have nearly 94 Lbs of rock through
their household!
How is this? In one year 657,000 grains of dissolved rock
(Hardness) will have gone through the home, leaving scale buildup behind. 7000 grains per gallon of hardness
is equivalent to 1 lb of rock in the water. Therefore 93.86 lbs of rock will
have gone through all the appliances, water heater, plumbing and fixtures in one
year! So it is easy to see that even at
relatively low hardness levels there are still major concerns with hard water
problems along with chlorine and other things added to the water supply.
Community wells and city water suppliers go to great lengths to protect our water and provide better water for its customers. It can still be better and that is up to the individual households. There are many practical water treatment options to improve the quality of water and quality of life for you and your family such as whole house filtration for chlorine and hardness removal and point of use options for drinking water such as reverse osmosis drinking water systems. The Evolve Series water treatment systems have many options to treat your specific water treatment problems and concerns.
Better Water, Better Life for you and your loved ones!
Better Water, Better Life for you and your loved ones!
Information regarding topics discussed in this article
is available in the links below.
City of Howell, MI 2013 Water
Report:
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Advanced%20Water/My%20Documents/Downloads/WaterReport%20(1).pdf
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Advanced%20Water/My%20Documents/Downloads/WaterReport%20(1).pdf
National Primary Drinking Water
Standards:
Fluoride Information:
http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/fluoride.cfm
http://www.livescience.com/37123-fluoridation.html
http://www.livescience.com/37123-fluoridation.html
Disinfectants in drinking water:
Water Treatment Solutions:
Whole house treatment : http://www.awtworks.com/products/water-softeners/evrcs/
Drinking water treatment: http://www.awtworks.com/products/reverse-osmosis/ultrowater/
Good days and good water to you!
Ray McConnell
Certified Water Treatment Specialist
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