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Sources of Water |
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Drinking water typically comes from 2 sources, surface or ground water. Both sources present their own challenges when it comes to managing filtration and sterilization systems.
Over the years I have had countless people say they have great water in their well or spring. What does great water mean? Does it mean it does not contain bacteria which will make you sick, or does it mean good tasting. Great tasting water can be full of bacteria and viruses. You cannot taste them. Great tasting water can potentially make you very sick.
Surface Water
Surface waters are subject to fecal contamination from animals and humans as water runs across the earth's surface and then flows into streams.
Turbidity (sediment) in the water is also a problem with surface waters, especially during high runoff times as snows melt. Sediment can make it difficult to sterilize the water as the particle size may not be penetrated by sterilizing solutions and UV may be rendered ineffective as the large particle size in the water shadows particles from receiving adequate UV light doses.
Surface water that stands in large pools typically contain tannins from rotting vegetation that stain the water and give it yellow to brown appearance. Tannins not only stain clothes when washing and make water look unappealing to drink the color in the water prevents UV light from passing through it effectively potentially rendering UV sterilizers ineffective.
Ground Water
Ground water comes from wells or springs. These aquifers can be either deep or shallow in their location, relative to the ground's surface. Shallow wells can be susceptible to surface water seeping into the well and fecal material contaminating the well. As water is drawn from the well, surrounding water runs back into the well as the aquifer re-balances itself. As ground water is in contact with the earth, it dissolves many minerals which can be problematic for household consumption.
A well must also be properly capped to prevent ground water from running down the well and contaminating the well. Years ago, I sold a large reverse osmosis (RO) system to a supermarket in a remote rural area. This RO system provided the entire supermarket with purified water for drinking, selling, vegetable wash-down, bakery, coffee shop, etc. The water supply on the property was a large capacity well. The company that installed the well, never capped the well properly to make it water tight. During a heavy rainstorm the parking lot flooded and covered the well head. The water from the flooded parking lot ran down into the well contaminating it. It took many shock treatments of chlorine being poured down the well over a period of weeks in order to disinfect the well over a period of weeks.
These factors and many more need to be considered when selecting filtration systems, reverse osmosis systems, UV systems, etc. A "one size fits all" solution does not exist when it comes to water filtration.
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