Basic Terms and Measurements for Home Reverse Osmosis Owners

by Gene Franks, Pure Water Products

Performance of home reverse osmosis units is measured with the same tools and concepts as larger units.  Here are some basics:

TDS. The most common measurement of reverse osmosis performance.  TDS stands for “total dissolved solids.”  It  is tested with a simple meter that passes a small electrical current through the water and measures how well the water conducts electricity.  The more “dissolved solids” the water contains, the better it conducts electricity, and the higher the reading on the meter.  Conversely, low conductivity means few solids and a low reading on the meter.

The meter in the picture can be used to measure the tap water as well as the RO water.  It is the comparison of the two, called “percent rejection” (see below), that really tells how well the unit is performing.

A Modern Total Dissolved Solids Tester Gives You An Instant Picture of the Effectiveness of Your RO Unit. You Can Also Use It to Test Your Tap Water for Comparison.

 

 

Most municipal tap water will have a TDS reading of 500 parts per million (ppm) or less. (The reading may be expressed as ppm, parts per million, or mg/L, milligrams per liter. Ppm and mg/L are essentially the same.)  The EPA regards 500 ppm as the maximum recommended TDS for drinking water (although the water of  many cities exceeds this).

TDS is merely a way that performance is measured.  A high TDS does not indicate that water is contaminated with dangerous pollutants.  It means mainly that it has lots of minerals in it.  TDS consists mainly of minerals like calcium, magnesium and sodium.

The more of these solids that the RO membrane “rejects” (removes), the better it is working.

Percent Rejection

In general, most modern residential reverse osmosis units reduce the TDS of tap water by 90% plus.  Your home unit is running fine if the water coming out of the RO unit is only about 10% of the tap water.  In other words, if your tap water reads 300 on your meter and your RO unit reads 30 or less there is no reason to consider changing your membrane.  The percentage rule works fine,  but if you want to be a bit more scientific, you can figure what is called the “percent rejection” of the unit.  Here’s the formula:

Tap water TDS minus RO water TDS divided by tap water TDS times 100.

For example, if your tap water reads 289 and your RO water reads 16, work the forumla:

289 – 16 = 273/289 = .9446 X 100 = 94% rejection.

This means that your RO unit is rejecting (removing) 94% of the solids from your tap water.  It is safe to assume it’s doing an excellent job reducing not only the minerals in the water but also contaminants like lead, arsenic, and fluoride.

Measuring TDS is an effective means of determining the overall performance of your RO membrane.

Measuring Output

An easy way for determining how many gallons per day your RO unit is producing is to measure how many milliliters the unit produces in a minute and multiply the result by 0.38. To do this, turn off the valve on your storage tank so that no water can go in or out, then lock open the ledge faucet on your sink top.  The small stream or drip that comes from the faucet is the amount of water the RO unit is producing in real time.  Catch the drip or stream for one minute in a measuring cup that shows milliliters.   Multiply the milliliters produced during one minute by 0.38 to get gallons per day.

For example, if your unit produces 60 milliliters in a minute,  multiply by 0.38 and you’ll see that your RO unit is making about 23 gallons of water in a 24 hour period.

 Vitamin C Shower Filter for removal of chlorine and chloramines from city tap water.

Chloramine removal from shower water is a challenge.  In fact, it is virtually impossible for conventional shower filters.  Shower filters have to be small and they have to process a large amount of water very quickly.  This means that filter carbon, the best chloramine reducer in larger filters, is not effective because the shower filter does not allow sufficient “residence time” with the water.

Vitamin C shower technology offers a new approach that is quite successful at chloramine reduction.

Ascorbic acid, Vitamin C, has been used for many years by industry, by aquarium enthusiasts, and by dialysis operators to remove chlorine and chloramine.  It is only recently that this very successful technology has been applied to the retail marked in the form of a shower filter.

Vitashower, the original and  the leading manufacturer of Vitamin C shower filters, is located in  Pasadena, California.  Its product is called Vitashower, and it also offers bath tablets, marketed under the name Vitabath,  that quickly remove chlorine and chloramine from bath water.

The approach is unique.  Although Vitashower is marketed as a “shower filter,”  Vitashower is not a filter but rather an injector.  It introduces the necessary amount of pharmaceutical grade vitamin C into the shower stream  to neutralize all chlorine or chloramine as the water passes through the unit. It does not filter chlorine and chloramines, but rather it neutralizes them through chemical reaction.

Vitashower is manufactured with  pharmaceutical grade Vitamin C which fully neutralizes both chlorine and chloramines.  Vitamin C is not toxic to humans and is known to boost the immune system and improve skin and hair.  Vitashower lets you enjoy disinfectant-free,  odor free, healthful shower water at a very low cost.

Vitashower works at any water temperature, any water pressure,  and the lifetime of the filter does not depend on the water quality. When no water is running through the shower head, no vitamin is injected, so the product’s effective  life depends on the amount of water used, not the quality of the water or the passage of time.

 

Features of the Vitamin Shower Filter

• De-chlorinating agent is 100% pharmaceutical grade Vitamin C.
• Totally neutralizes chlorine and chloramine.
• Improves the condition of skin and texture of hair.
• Attaches easily to any shower fixture without lowering the height (an important issue for tall individuals).
• Unit treats up to 15,000 gallons.
• Meets the de-chlorination requirements established for drinking water by the EPA.
• Environmentally safe.
• The active ingredient is a necessary nutrient, not a toxic chemical.
• 100% organic.
• Easy to install.  Easy to use.

 

Now Available from Pure Water Products

$37.  We pay shipping.   Call 940 382 3814 to order or for more information.

Controversial New Law Banning Single Drink Water Bottles Goes Into Effect

Concord,  Massachusetts on Jan. 1, 2012 made history by becoming the first town in the nation where the sale of plastic water bottles is prohibited.

A new year brings a controversial new law into effect in Concord: no one can sell single-serving plastic water bottles.

The ban comes after an April town meeting vote that makes Concord the first in the nation to ban the sale of plastic water bottles.

Supporters say it will force people to use tap water and reduce the number of plastic bottles in landfills.

Some businesses, those selling bottled water,  have been against it from the beginning. They’ve been busy trying to clear their shelves of the bottles.

The penalty for violating the ban is $50.

It will be interesting to see if other cities follow Concord’s example. The case is, of course, one of those complicated gray areas where civil liberties, free enterprise, and environmentalism collide.

The full story.

 

December 2012 Water News in Numbers

Water News Numbers for December 2012

Gazette Numerical Wizard Bee Sharper Indexes the Numbers that Harper’s Misses

Facts You Would Have Learned Had You Read This Month’s Top Water Stories Articles in the Pure Water Gazette. Aren’t you ashamed that you didn’t?

Age of Besse Cooper, who died in December of 2012 — 116.

Number of significant medical studies that have found the children living in areas where water is fluoridated have lower IQ scores than children from non-fluoridated areas–36.

Projected increase in the number of water-consuming Texans between 2010 and 2050 — 25 million to 55 million.

Number of Americans who have at least one food allergy — 7.5 million.

Percentage by which food allergies increased between 1997 and 2007 –18%.

Number of years an artificial Christmas tree must be used to make its environmental impact equal to that of a “real” Christmas tree — 20.

Fraction of US winter food crops that are grown with irrigation water from the Colorado River — 1/3.

Low temperature at the cite of this year’s (Dec. 23) annual Christmas Bath in Poland’s Warta River– minus 10 C.

Temperature at which performance figures for residential reverse osmosis membranes are rated — 77 F.

Inlet pressure at which residential reverse osmosis membrane are rated — 60 psi.

Number you multiply by to convert milliliters per minute to gallons per day to figure reverse osmosis production rates– 0.38.

Gallons of fresh water accidentally lost by an El Paso County fracking operation — 1.8 million.

Number of households this water would supply for a year — 54.

Percentage of Americans’ mercury intake that comes from eating tuna — almost 40%.

Number of years that medical authorities used and recommended bloodletting as an effective treatment –2500.

Size increase of some water-absorbing toys when placed in water (or a child’s stomach) — 400 times.

According to the UN, the number of people worldwide who are suffering from water scarcity — 700 million.

According to the Minnesota Department of Health, the amount being charged by many “high pressure” sellers of water treatment equipment for $1,000 worth of equipment — $6,000.

Approximate number of US motorists who die each year from drowning — 400.

According to the Mercury News, the rank of Jamie Nolan among girls’ water polo players — #1.

Age of the New Delhi woman whose rape (and subsequent death) sparked massive protests which police sought to control with powerful water cannons–23.

Water saving claimed by the maker of a new aerating shower head — 35%.

Length of a controversial water pipeline recently approved to transport water to Las Vegas — 264 miles.

Number of Rose Bowl fulls of water that are dumped into Santa Monica Bay by a good rain– 100.

Number of gallons — 10 billion.

Number of California’s ten most polluted beaches that are in Los Angeles County — 7.

“Water Footprint” of the average modern Californian– 1500 gallons per day.

B. Sharper appears each month in the Pure Water Occasional email newsletter.  Sign Up.  It’s free.

 

Consumers Are Warned to Beware of Unethical Water Treatment Vendors

Introductory Note:  For years the  legitimate water treatment industry has been burdened by high pressure sellers who use deceptive methods,  fear-mongering, and false product claims to rush buyers into a purchase of equipment that is usually massively overpriced and frequently unnecessary. The Minnesota Department of Health recently issued an admonition to consumers to beware of unscrupulous sellers.  Here are some excerpts: 

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is reminding Minnesota residents to beware of false claims, deceptive sales pitches, and scare tactics being used by some water treatment companies to sell expensive and unnecessary water treatment systems. High profile investigations of groundwater contamination in Washington County and elsewhere in the state have resulted in a noticeable increase in the number of complaints regarding such deceptive sales activities.

Recently Richfield police issued an alert after residents reported getting green bottles left on their doorstep with a request for a water sample. After providing a sample, a homeowner received a visit from a salesman with an aggressive sales pitch for a treatment system costing more than $6,000 and had difficulty getting the salesman to leave. Officials in Falcon Heights also alerted residents after complaints of water testing kits and personal information requests being left at people’s doors. The city directed residents to call 911 if they saw anyone dropping off testing kits. Several cities have complained about a website containing misleading information about municipal water suppliers and what tests are done on drinking water. The website has been used to try to sell treatment systems to homeowners.

While the pitch varies in these situations, the salesperson nearly always:

Recites a list of recent groundwater contamination problems across the state, regardless of whether the contamination actually affects the resident or not.
Conducts a series of water quality “tests” that the salesperson claims indicate the presence of contamination, when in fact they may simply indicate the presence of naturally occurring minerals in the water.
Misrepresents state and federal drinking water standards, claiming the resident’s water exceeds those standards, and implying the water is unsafe to drink.
Offers a “one-time only” offer of a water treatment system at a “greatly reduced” price, when in fact the systems are being sold at grossly inflated prices.

In some of the worst instances, the salesperson has implied or said that he is working with the city’s water utility or the state health department. In most cases, the systems are being sold for thousands of dollars more than they would cost if bought through a reputable water treatment company.

Even legitimate water treatment systems can be very expensive and if poorly operated or maintained may have limited effectiveness and, in some cases, make the water quality worse. Water treatment systems should be installed only if actually needed and selected to address the specific water problem.

If you use city water, it is safe to drink unless you are notified directly by the city that the water is not safe to drink. The United States Environmental Protection Agency sets standards for public water supplies and the water is tested regularly to ensure that these standards are met. You may find out the results of tests on a public water supply by contacting your water utility.

Water from a private well should also be free of unsafe levels of man-made contaminants if the well is properly constructed, is drawing from a safe aquifer, and has not been flooded or otherwise compromised. However, the only way to be certain about the quality of the water from a private well is to have it tested by a competent water testing laboratory. To find out where you can get your water tested, contact your community health service, local health department.

For further information.

 

 Pretty Good Water Stories

by Hardly Waite

 

Back in the olden days when the Pure Water Gazette was written with a typewriter and printed on paper, I had to look for water stories wherever I could find them. This usually meant going through magazines and newspapers and an occasional book.  Articles about water were hard to find.

Now, with the help of automatic searches, the opposite is true.  In fact, just by subscribing to a few key search items in Google Alerts I get more submissions every day than I can look at. Unfortunately, most of the random finds made by Google as it crawls the web looking for “water articles” or “water treatment” or “water news” are what you would expect of a robot.  There are lots of finds like “large snake killed on road near Sapulpa water plant,” or “Minot council votes to postpone water rate hike.”  Then there are slightly more interesting stories that get picked up and repeated and repeated like this month’s U Tube posting of a young man in Siberia throwing a pan of boiling water from an apartment building balcony to demonstrate that it turns to snow before it reaches the ground.

Here are, in brief, some pretty good stories—not the best or the worst—that I came across during this December of 2012.

Around 400 U.S. motorists die each year from drowning when their vehicle plunges into water. To help eliminate the chances of being restrained in a submerged car, a new seat belt mechanism has been designed to make sure that occupants can extract themselves quickly and safely when underwater.

Recruits at a South Texas military base were forced to fill their canteens from a toilet.

Gangs of thieves in Philadelphia perform daylight robberies by pretending to be water department employees.

According to Huffington Post,  a new Brita-style pitcher filter  named Soma (after “. . .a mystical drink to help warriors overcome their fears in battle or poets to find their inspiration. . .”) will come on the market soon if investors can be found.  Its distinction is that it is recyclable, being made from “. . . Malaysian coconut shells, . . . vegan silk and . . . plant-based PLA composite.”  A unique marketing plan includes a subscription service for cartridge replacements.

Harrison Enright was named boys water polo player of the year by Mercury News.  Jamie Nolan was named girls water polo player of the year.

With a growing population and a drought that seems intent on hanging around, the most critical issue for Oklahoma City in 2013 may be securing access to an important source of drinking water. The city is involved in a water rights court battle with the Choctaw and Chicasaw tribes over water rights for a large area of southeastern Oklahoma.

A video was released in December of what is being called the largest iceberg calving event ever caught on tape.

  More Informationabout the New Delhi protests.

Residents of Orange Cove, CA were warmed against drinking tap water for an indefinite period because nitrate levels in the city’s water tested nearly double the EPA allowable.    (An undersink reverse osmosis unit would easily take care of the nitrates.)

A genetically-modified salmon which grows twice as fast as ordinary fish could become the first genetically-modified animal in the world to be declared officially safe to eat. America’s powerful FDA ruled it posed no major health or environmental risks. The GM Atlantic salmon is engineered with extra genes from two other fish species.  Read details in the Guardian.

Hollywood is getting a new water tower.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. is seeing a delay in starting operation of a new water treatment facility that can remove more radioactive substances than the one currently being used at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.  The plant is an effort to deal with a massive amount of contaminated water created as a result of continuing water injection into the damaged reactors.

In HCM City, city authorities have mandated the use of new state-of-the-art waste water treatment systems at 324 medical stations.  Medical authorities are complaining that the water treatment systems are not only extremely expensive but are largely unneeded.  It is estimated that every waste water treatment system at medical stations costs 400-500 million dong.

At a “Water For Children” event staged for Greenpeace China,  artists painted water treatment devices onto the bodies of children,  as a metaphor for their bodies having to process water from polluted water sources in some areas of China.

Most water-saving showers save water by making the holes on the head smaller but this often means your shower doesn’t feel as cleansing, as you end up with a fine mist instead of a proper shower. A new shower head called Air-In-Shower  aerates the water to make the water droplets larger. In layman’s terms, it fills the water droplets with air so that you’re not using as much water as a regular shower but the volume of the water shouldn’t feel lower.   The manufacturer claims a 35% saving in water.  The maker of the Air-in-Shower is Toto.

The Bureau of Land Management, in a very controversial decision, approved the plan for a 264 mile pipeline to carry billions of gallons of water to thirsty Las Vegas from rural counties along the Nevada-Utah line.

EPA administrator Lisa Jackson announced her resignation.

Bad Water Stories

We’ll end the year with a few examples of bad water stories. These are scraping the bottom of the water bucket.

A man in Converse, TX got a $12,000 water bill, but then the city changed it to $180.

A new product called Dream Water promises to help you sleep after flying.  Ingredients:  Melatonin, GABA, 5HTP and a few other things, in a 3-ounce serving.  Price: $38.99 per six pack.

Justin Bieber tossed a bottle of water at Miami paparazzi.

According to the Collinsville News,  a beautiful and well-behaved dog is thought to have recently been abandoned at the Collinsville Water Treatment Plant. Plant workers discovered the dog several days ago and the dog appears to have been well taken care of.

And finally, the absolute worst water story of the year:

You can cool hot soup quickly by stirring it with a frozen plastic water bottle.

Drought Conditions and an Army Corps’ Management Decision Have Dropped the Mississippi to Its Lowest Level Since the Drought of 1956

Commerce on a key stretch of the Mississippi River could “come to an effective halt” earlier than expected next week due to low water levels, disrupting shipments of billions of dollars of grain and other goods, a group of shippers said.

The Waterways Council, which represents shippers and receivers of commodities, said in a message to its members Wednesday that it had received an advisory from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Monday [Dec. 24, 2012] that indicated water levels around Thebes, Ill., could be too low for most vessels to operate by Jan. 3 or 4.

A spokesman for the Army Corps did not immediately return a call for comment about the forecast.

Shippers for months have been watching the stretch of the Mississippi River between St. Louis and Cairo, Ill., which includes Thebes, because of concerns about a potential closure.

A shipping superhighway that carries billions of dollars in grain, coal, steel and other commodities every year from the central United States to the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi is near record-low levels due to the worst U.S. drought since 1956.

“Water levels are falling quicker than we anticipated,” Ann McCulloch, spokeswoman for the American Waterways Operators, a sister organization to the Waterways Council, said in an interview. “We were hoping not to reach this point until mid-January.”

The Waterways Council did not specify how long the river could be effectively closed.

Shippers have said that rain is needed to replenish water levels to keep the river open.

Recent snowfall in the central United States should help increase water levels on the lower Mississippi River, said Army Corps spokesman Mike Petersen earlier on Wednesday. However, “we would need a lot more” precipitation to see a significant improvement on key stretches of the middle Mississippi near Thebes, he said.

The Mississippi River is the main shipping waterway for grain moving from Midwest farms to export facilities at the Gulf of Mexico. About 55 to 65 percent of U.S. corn, soybean and wheat shipments exit the country via the gulf.

Exporters stepped up shipments of grain and soybeans to the Gulf Coast before water levels fell to critically low levels, forcing barges to take on lighter loads. They also resorted to loading more of their goods on rail cars.

The disruption of river traffic due to low water has pushed up export prices for grain, especially soybeans that are in strong demand from buyers like China.

The latest forecast calls for the Mississippi River gauge at Thebes to be at 3 feet on or around Jan. 3-4, with vessel drafts limited to 8 feet, according the Waterways Council. Most vessels require a 9-foot draft to operate.

The draft is the distance from the surface of the water to a boat’s lowest point.

“Our members have been preparing (for an effective closure) by investigating other options to move their products, either by rail or truck,” said Debra Colbert, senior vice president for the council. “We’ve seen orders canceled; we’ve seen orders curtailed. We’ve seen companies looking at potential layoffs.”

The Army Corps last week began clearing rocks from a shallow stretch of the drought-hit river near Thebes to maintain the flow of goods to Gulf Coast ports.

The low water level on the Mississippi River after this year’s devastating dry spell was exacerbated by the corps’ decision to reduce by even more than usual the amount of water that flows into the waterway from the Missouri River. The corps reduces the Missouri River flow every autumn.

The move raised protests from Midwestern governors and senators who urged President Barack Obama to rescind the decision for fear that badly needed income would be lost through the disruption of commerce that flows through the river.

The river groups met last week with White House staff “and continue to implore them and members of Congress and the Corps to release additional water to sustain navigation on the Mississippi River,” the council said.

Article source.

Gazette Fair Use Statement

A Good Rain Pours 100 Rose Bowl Stadiums’ Worth of Nasty Water into Santa Monica Bay

 

Editor’s Note.  The piece below is excerpted from an LA Times article by Mathew King, who is communications director for Heal the Bay, a Los Angeles environmental group founded in 1985 to stop the dumping of raw sewage into Santa Monica Bay.

Even if you’re not a surfer, you have reason to be concerned about polluted storm water. Rimmed by foothills and mountains, Los Angeles County is like a giant bowl tilted toward the sea. When it rains, water rushes along paved streets, picking up trash, fertilizer, pet waste and automotive fluids before heading to the ocean via the region’s extensive storm drain system. A single typical day of rainfall spews an estimated 10 billion gallons of runoff into Santa Monica Bay, untreated and unchecked. That’s the equivalent of roughly 100 Rose Bowl stadiums’worth of dirty water. It’s little wonder the county claims seven of the 10 most polluted beaches in the state.

This is not simply a public health issue; it’s also a huge waste of a precious resource. Los Angeles imports costly and increasingly scarce water from Northern California and the Colorado River. Storm water — if held, filtered and cleansed naturally in groundwater basins — could provide a safe, more secure and less costly source of drinking water.

The county now has a chance to address the problem. This month, notices have gone out to county property owners about a proposed storm water fee. Most single-family residential parcels would be assessed $54 per year, and the money — about $270 million annually — would be used for innovative infrastructure projects to capture and reuse storm water. On Jan. 15, the county Board of Supervisors will hold a hearing on the issue, after which an election by mail is likely.

Some opponents are already crying about hidden taxes, but this measure is more rightly viewed as a sound economic investment. Funds raised will enable municipalities to develop multi-benefit wetlands, parks and open spaces that can recharge groundwater supplies, saving money in the long run. Thousands of local jobs in the construction, engineering and landscaping industries will be created. Reclaimed storm water will irrigate neighborhood parks, ball fields and school grounds instead of fouling rivers and beaches.

An advisory committee of property owners and members of the public, appointed by the supervisors, would approve project plans and oversee the funds. Fees could not be raised nor diverted to any other use.

Surfers like me often do dumb things. But Los Angeles County can be smart about storm water. Let’s stop pouring money, and bacteria, down the drain.

Please read more about Heal the Bay’s many projects and activities aimed at protecting the Santa Monica Bay.

Matthew King is communications director for Heal the Bay.

Gazette Fair Use Statement

Examining California’s Water Footprint

by Rick Paulas

 

Water’s ‘fiscal cliff’ is no pretty waterfall