New Technologies That Save Water Should Be Taken with a Grain of Salt

Many water saving products work well, and yet  . . .

Vortech Tanks

Enpress, the tank manufacturer, makes the following advertising claim for its popular “Vortech” brand mineral tanks for backwashing filters and water softeners:

It’s proven – we have saved over 14 billion gallons of water and counting with our Vortech® and Mid-Vortech® distributor plate technologies since they were introduced 10 years ago!

The manufacturer is, of course, basing its “proof” on the assumption that everyone who uses the tank is taking advantage of the superior backwash flow performance of the tank as compared with conventional mineral tanks with gravel underbedding. While the manufacturer’s tests show that backwashing filters built in Vortech tanks can be backwashed with up to 30% less water, it’s safe to say that only a relatively small percentage of products using Vortech tanks are actually using 30% less water as compared with similar products that use standard mineral tanks.

The reason is that Vortech tanks don’t have magic properties that makes them automatically save 30% of the backwash water. To save water, they have to be set up by the installer to have either a shorter backwash/rinse cycle or to have a more restrictive backwash flow control device installed so that fewer gallons go out the drain line. We (at Pure Water Products) use Vortech tanks on all our filters, but we take a more conservative 20% reduction in regeneration water.  (Or first concern is to make sure the filter works properly. We we want to be sure it doesn’t fail because it’s starved for water.) If everyone used Vortech tanks with our setup, therefore, Enpress would have to say that they have saved 9 billion rather than 14 billion gallons.

When I asked one of our large suppliers for their setup formula for Vortech units, I was told that they set use the same setup for Vortech as for standard tank units. Although they advertise Vortech tanks as water savers, the Vortech units they make use exactly the same amount of water as their standard units. My guess is that this is the rule rather than the exception.

High Efficiency Softener Resin

The same is true for the extra efficient softener resins. Resin that can be regenerated with 4 pounds of salt per cubic foot of resin only saves salt if the installer sets it up that way. Resin itself doesn’t automatically save salt. In fact, softeners in general are among the products that are often advertised as salt and water efficient yet are set up exactly like standard models. The most sophisticated water softener does not automatically save water if it is not set up properly at installation.

Water Saving Reverse Osmosis Membranes

High efficiency RO membranes, like the new Pentair GRO units, are great water savers and they perform as advertised.  But, they only save water if they are set up correctly. The membrane itself does not automatically save water: it has to be paired with a drain line flow restrictor that matches the membrane. It is the flow restrictor that actually governs how much water goes out the drain line, not the membrane. If you buy a GRO membrane from Amazon and put it on your RO unit, it will only save water if you pair it with a properly sized flow restrictor.

There is a new RO unit just on the market that boasts “3 gallons of drinking water to 1 gallon of concentrate.” We haven’t seen it or seen an explanation of how it works. We’ve had excellent performance from the Pentair GRO with its 1 to 1–one gallon of RO permeate water for one gallon to drain–ratio, but 3 to 1 seems to good to be true.

The Permeate Pump

The RO “Permeate Pump” is now a recognized water saver, and if you install it properly your revere osmosis unit will definitely fill its tank faster and shut off faster and therefore run less water to drain. The pump can be installed with or without a shutoff valve and there is disagreement about which way is better.  The good thing is they save water either way, and it’s easy to tell if you have it installed right: if it makes a thumping sound, you got it right.

Advanced tanks, water saving membranes, and high efficiency resins are all significant water savers, but you should not think you’re saving water just because you own them.  Most products of this type work only if  you set them up right.

Perfluoroalkyls in a nutshell

What are PFCs?

PFCs are a family of man-made compounds that are not naturally occurring in the environment. Perfluoroalkyls repel oil, grease, and water, and as a result were used as protective coatings in cookware, carpet, clothing, paper, and cardboard packaging, as well as in fire-fighting foams. They are very stable compounds that are resilient to breakdown in the environment. The most common perfluoroalkyl compounds are perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).

PFOS and PFOA

PFOS and PFOA compounds were produced in large quantities in the United States and have contaminated air, water, and soil at locations where they were produced or used. As a result, PFOA and PFOS are found in air and dust; surface and groundwater; and soil and sediment. The highest levels of PFOS and PFOA are typically at or near a facility that produced or used the compounds. Since they are found in air and dust, they appear in remote locations where flooding and groundwater migrate them through the soil.

Health Effects of PFCs

The most common exposure to PFOS and PFOA is through ingestion, with drinking water supplies being the primary route for exposure. Typically, populations near facilities where PFOS and PFOA was manufactured or used have the highest levels of these compounds in their drinking water. Health advisories by the EPA indicate that exposure to PFOS and PFOA over certain levels may result in adverse health effects, including developmental effects to fetuses during pregnancy or to breastfed infants (e.g., low birth weight, accelerated puberty, skeletal variations), cancer (e.g., testicular, kidney), liver effects (e.g., tissue damage), immune effects (e.g., antibody production and immunity), thyroid effects and other effects (e.g., cholesterol changes). As a result the EPA has established a combined lifetime exposure of 70 parts per trillion for PFOS and PFOA.

Water Treatment?

The best and most commonly applied water treatment for PFCs in general is the old standby, granular activated carbon.

Quick Reference Table for Water Contaminant Treatment

What is DOC and How Is It Treated?

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is a general description of the organic material dissolved in water.

Organic carbon occurs as the result of decomposition of plant or animal material, and a small part of the organic carbon  may then dissolve into the water.

Organic material (including carbon) results from decomposition of plants or animals. Once this decomposed organic material contacts water it may partially dissolve.

DOC does not pose health risk itself but may become potentially harmful when in combination with other aspects of water. When water with high DOC is chlorinated, harmful byproducts called trihalomethanes may be produced. Trihalomethanes may have long-term effects on health. That is why DOC is a consideration when water is chlorinated.

Not only can Dissolved Organic Carbon promote the formation of trihalomethanes (THMs) in chlorinated water, it can also  interfere with the effectiveness of disinfection processes such as chlorination, ultraviolet and ozonation. DOC can also promote the growth of microorganisms by providing a food source. In addition, it can add taste, odor and color.

Organic content is usually higher in surface water than in well water.

Removal of dissolved organic carbon is more commonly done by municipalities and water suppliers than by homeowners. City water suppliers have treatment strategies to draw on that aren’t available to residential users. They are also in a better position to prevent the formation of DOC, which is usually easier than treating it.

Treatment methods effective in removing DOC from water include: coagulation/flocculation processes, biological filtration, granulated activated charcoal and distillation. For residential water treatment, GAC is the most common and the most practical treatment. Distillers can be used for drinking water only.

Usually treatment is recommended if concentrations of DOC are greater than 5 mg/L.  At that level, it is likely that chlorination will result in the formation of THMs in excess of EPA standards. Above 5 mg/L color of the finished water also becomes objectionable.  For concentrations of less than 2 mg/L, color is usually not an issue and THM creation will be small.

The best home treatment for DOC is carbon filtration.

Hard to believe, Garden Hose Day is again upon us

Moving National Garden Hose Day from August to June makes the holiday’s promoters look like geniuses.  Last year’s event, on its new June 21 date, exceeded expectations in terms of crowd sizes, enthusiasm and product sales.

Although Minneapolis has become the unofficial capitol of Garden Hose Day activities, communities large and small around the US are holding Garden Hose celebrations this year. The Garden Hose Tug, an enhanced variation of the good old fashioned Tug O’ War game, remains the main event in most Garden Hose Day celebrations, although garden hose crafts contests, in which contestants show objects they’ve created from garden hoses, are expected to run a close second in popularity at this year’s events.

Last year Cleveland added a canine division to the Garden Hose Tug. In the final round, the event winner, Little Arnold, on the left, bested Spot, his weightier opponent, in less than four minutes.

The common garden hose is one 0f life’s treasures that we take for granted.  When you think of it for what it is–a very inexpensive portable pipe that can bend around corners, roll up for storage,  and carry high volumes of water quickly over great distances–it deserves our admiration as one of civilization’s simple but awe-inspiring achievements. For simplicity, for efficiency, and for utility, the garden hose is right up there with the canoe, the bicycle and the clothes line in the list of man’s greatest creations. For gardening, car washing, filling pools–for more of our routine activities that we can recount–the humble garden hose saves time, money, and labor. But for many of us, the garden hose is of greatest importance because it evokes happy memories of childhood and summer days.

We urge you to go to a garden hose event in your neighborhood this year.

An attractive garden hose basket that is a popular item in Amazon garden hose stores. In addition to the almost limitless array of decorative hoses, there are special nozzles, colorful hose bibs, manual and electrically-powered hose dispenser/retractors,  hose splitters, hose repair kits, hose unions, hose protectors, and more.  Related items include lawn equipment, car wash paraphernalia,  clothing,  books about gardening, patio cooking, landscaping and washing cars, patio furniture, lawn sprinklers,  gardening tools–the list is endless. Yes, even X-rated products that include sex toys and clothing with suggestive phallic mottoes and pictures were on the market this year.

200 Years of Rubbish

Editor’s note:  When Lord Byron wrote almost 200 years ago that “man marks the Earth with ruin, but his control stops with the shore,” he didn’t know what deep ocean scientists would eventually find on the ocean floor, 4 kilometers below the surface in a remote spot far off the coast of Australia.  The following is from a piece by Bryan Nelson describing the finding of a  bizarre, deep sea fish without a face that has not been seen for nearly 150 years.

Aside from discovering strange and wondrous organisms, the expedition has also uncovered a monstrous reality happening at the bottom of our oceans: the amount of trash sometimes seems to outnumber the fish.

“There’s a lot of debris, even from the old steam ship days when coal was tossed overboard,” said the lead researcher. “We’ve seen PVC pipes and we’ve trawled up cans of paints. It’s quite amazing. We’re in the middle of nowhere and still the sea floor has 200 years of rubbish on it.”

The ocean’s abyssal plains are becoming our planet’s waste baskets, as toxins and dreck pile up in trenches and other low places of the sea floor. In fact, earlier this year scientists detected “extraordinary” levels of toxic pollution in the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the world’s oceans.

It’s therefore increasingly important that researchers document the unique biodiversity of these little-studied parts of our planet to establish a baseline, so that future studies can more accurately calculate the impacts of pollution in these remote habitats.

Read the whole article (and see a picture of the faceless fish).