Devastating Drought in Amazon Rainforest

The climate crisis turned the drought that struck the Amazon rainforest in 2023 into a devastating event

Reverse Osmosis Shutoff Problems

Here is a typical customer question regarding an undersink reverse osmosis unit that doesn’t seem to be shutting off properly.

In the past week or so we’ve noticed a dramatic uptick — or trickle — of the filter.  That is, we’ve been hearing sometimes for a couple hours at a time, for a week every day, what I’m calling the usual but much less frequent “back flow” into the drain pipe that happens during filtration under normal conditions.  Whereas it used to be heard only once a month — in other words, so infrequently that we almost didn’t notice it.

The “backflow” that the RO owner describes is actually the unit’s normal flow to drain.  Whether you hear it or not, there is always a trickle of water running to the drain while the unit is filling the storage tank.  The drain water’s function is to carry away the impurities that have been rejected by the RO membrane. The trickle to drain happens when the  unit is making water to fill the tank.  When the tank is full, it stops.

RO Units Don’t Follow Human Logic

There are a number of reasons why you start hearing water run into the drainpipe when you have not heard it before. The most common are a change in water pressure or a change in temperature, causing the water to fall a bit differently into the drain pipe. When drain water slides down the wall of the pipe,  you don’t hear it, but if the pressure is a bit stronger it can fall into a small pool of water that has gathered in the pipe and you’ll hear it fall. (If the drain saddle is installed on a horizonal rather than a vertical pipe, you will hardly ever hear the drain flow.)

If it sometimes takes much longer than  you would expect to fill the tank, that’s usually because the unit’s production was shut off prematurely with the tank only partially full. The next time the unit begins making water, it will take longer than you expect to refill the storage tank.  Here’s a common situation.  The unit is filling the tank when an event like a toilet flush or a shower lowers incoming pressure and the production stops because the shutoff system thinks that the tank is full.  (Yes, I know, RO units don’t think.) The way that the shutoff system determines the amount of water in the tank is by monitoring the pressure inside the tank and comparing it to the pressure of the tap water going into the unit. The unit fills the tank until the pressure in the tank equals about 2/3 of the pressure of the inlet water. If the inlet pressure goes down (as happens when a toilet is flushed), the production of water to fill the tank can be interrupted.  The next time there is a demand for water (e.g., the RO faucet is opened), the pressure in the storage tank goes down, production starts.  In this case it will take a lot longer to top off the tank than you would expect.

To Determine If There Is a Problem

The first thing to do is to determine if the shutoff system is working.

Probably the easiest way to determine if the system is working is before going to bed to run enough water through the unit to start production, then check it the next morning. If it has shut off during the night everything is probably working fine.

A quicker way is to turn off the valve on top of the storage tank (off is with the valve handle at right angles with the tube), then  open the countertop RO faucet. The water should run at a uniform trickle or small stream.  Next, turn off the faucet. Water should stop running to drain within 3 or 4 minutes. If it stops production and keeps it off, the shutoff system is working fine.  Turning off the tank valve simulates a full tank.

If water continues to run with the tank valve closed, the unit needs attention.  The most likely parts that need replacement are the hydraulic shutoff valve (the disc-shaped part mounted on the membrane housing that has 4 tubes) or, less likely, the check valve (one way valve) in the permeate tube.  It is the small cigar-shaped item in the short tube that connects the left end of the membrane housing with the shutoff valve.

Red Flag

If the water you hear in the drain line sounds more like a rushing river than a gentle trickle and it never stops, turn off the inlet water to the unit and leave it off until a repair is made.  The offending part is the flow restrictor. That’s the larger of the two cigar-shaped items in the drain tube.

Does Lead Enter the Body Through the Skin or through Breathing?

Here’s a brief AI answer to the question with excellent reference notes.

According to multiple sources, lead does not enter the body through the skin during bathing or showering, even if the water contains lead¹²³⁴. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) agree that human skin does not absorb lead in water². Similarly, Health Canada states that lead will not enter the body through the skin or by breathing in vapors while showering or bathing³. The Massachusetts government also confirms that lead is not absorbed through the skin⁴.

However, it’s important to note that lead can enter the body if it is ingested. For example, you could accidentally swallow lead that is on your hands when you eat, drink, smoke, or apply cosmetics¹. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to wash your hands thoroughly after contact with lead-contaminated water.

November WATER NEWS  — November 2023

The War Against Lead Pipes

In announcing a significant expansion of the federal government’s efforts under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to get “100% of lead pipes out of the nation’s water supply, once and for all,” the EPA estimated that there are still 9.2 million water supply pipes in the nation that contain lead. It noted that most of these pipes serve older homes.

A devastating outbreak of sea lice attacking Icelandic salmon farms has led to the slaughter of countless farmed salmon and has become a major animal rights controversy.  See The Guardian for full details.

The Chemical Industry Has Spent $110 million in Recent Months to Thwart Legislation to Control PFAS 

The US chemical industry likely spent over $110m during the last two election cycles deploying lobbyists to kill dozens of pieces of PFAS legislation and slow administrative regulation around “forever chemicals”, a new analysis of federal lobbying documents has found.

The industry’s onslaught was effective: only eight pieces of legislation that targeted PFAS made it through Congress, the paper prepared by the Food and Water Watch (FWW) nonprofit found.

“There’s an extreme amount of money that’s going into fighting [PFAS legislation],” said Amanda Starbuck, FWW’s research director and the lead author on the report. “It’s hard to win these fights when there’s so much funding being put in from the opposing side.”

PFAS are a class of about 14,000 compounds used to make products resist water, stains and heat. They are known as “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down, and they have been linked to cancer, high cholesterol, liver disease, kidney disease, fetal complications and other serious health problems.

As the dangers from PFAS have come into sharper focus over the last decade, lawmakers, the Environmental Protection Agency and other administrative agencies have come under an ever-increasing amount of pressure to rein in the chemicals use and clean up pollution. Chemical manufacturers’ spending has jumped in response, the report noted

“The chemical and associated industries are powerful and have used their army of lobbyists and campaign finance war chests to thwart meaningful action,” the paper states.

Full article from The Guardian.

Measuring PFAS

A major problem in enforcing the EPA’s proposed new 4 parts per trillion limit on the “forever chemicals” is that instrumentation capable of measuring an amount that small is hard to find and very expensive. A practical solution may be to raise the allowable a bit to an amount that city water suppliers can measure. The lesson here is that all EPA allowables are based on science that has been negotiated to meet the realities of the world we live in. 

Nitrates in Wells in Eastern Oregon

High levels of nitrates that are getting worse by the year are making the water impossible to drink in rural areas of Eastern Oregon.”Thousands of Oregonians in Umatilla and north Morrow counties rely on private wells for drinking water, tapping into a massive underground aquifer. But pollution has steadily contaminated that groundwater source in recent decades, turning what was once safe water into a potentially toxic supply.” KGW8 News.

“Toilet-to-Tap.”  Arizona is in the process of making the switch.

It’s often referred to informally as “toilet-to-tap’’ technology. Arizonans eventually will be drinking treated sewage – what the state Department of Environmental Quality and City of Phoenix prefer to call the product of “advanced water purification’’ – for the simple reason that there just isn’t enough water to serve a growing population. Robin Silver, co-founder of the Center for Biological Diversity, said it’s not a question of “if’’ but of “when.’’ The use of reclaimed effluent is inevitable in the arid Southwest, period. That’s not really debatable anymore.’’  Capitol Media Services.

Fraudulent Claims Are Disrupting Camp LeJeune Damage Payouts

According to Bloomberg News, “The government plan to pay billions of dollars to victims of toxic water at Camp Lejeune has unleashed a wave of fraudulent claims that threatens to disrupt or taint what could be one of the largest-ever mass tort cases.  Veterans’ advocates and lawyers also say the fake claims — and the time and effort to identify and weed them out — could dilute the empathy for legitimately ill victims and slow the process of compensating them.”  Water Online.

A Thriving City Is Dying from Lack of Water

The gripping story of a French island city in the Indian Ocean that is literally dying of thirst.  Full story.

Lithium

Lithium, an unregulated water contaminant, was found in surprisingly high occurrence levels in ongoing EPA monitoring. In fact, 22% of the community water supplies tested exceeded the the EPA’s established health reference level.

According to a recent Water Quality Association (WQA) statement, “The health implications of lithium in drinking water are still being studied, and they may not all be negative. In the pharmaceutical industry, lithium is used as an antidepressant, and some studies have correlated high lithium levels in drinking water with a reduction in suicide rate. A study in Denmark had conflicting results: High levels of lithium in drinking water were correlated with a decreased risk of dementia, but medium levels of lithium in drinking water correlated with an increased risk of dementia. A study in Argentina found that high levels of lithium can interfere with child development by making it difficult for pregnant women to maintain healthy calcium levels in the blood.”

The WQA reaches the familiar conclusion: “More studies are needed.”

In the meantime, if you want to remove lithium from your drinking water, an undersink reverse osmosis unit is the best way to go about it.

Source: WQA email newsletter, November 2023.

Can’t Open the Filter Housings on Your Undersink Water Filter or Reverse Osmosis Unit?

1. The first thing of all is relieve the pressure on the housings.  With a filter, turn off the inlet water and open the faucet.  Leave it locked open while you work.  If you have a reverse osmosis unit, also turn off the valve on the storage tank. When no water is coming from the faucet, you should be able to open the housing.

2. To open, turn the housing counterclockwise.  Think of it this way: If you put the filter wrench on the extreme right housing and point the handle away from the housing to the left, you would use your right hand and pull back toward your body to open the housing.

3. Get into a comfortable position. If the unit is installed in an awkward, hard-to-reach location, you may have to pull it out to a place where you can address it comfortably. In the worst case, you may have to uninstall it so you can lay it on its back to get more leverage.  (Remember that the housings are full of water, so it’s going to run on the floor when it opens if it’s lying sideways.)

4.If all else fails, you can get more leverage by lengthening the wrench handle with a pipe or a vacuum cleaner wand.  Or you can even buy a special wrench designed for very tough jobs.  See WR012 on this page.

5. Extreme methods: Someone suggests using a hair dryer to warm the filter cap causing it to expand and thus loosen more easily.  Another suggestion, and I’ve seen this work with larger housings, is to apply the wrench to the housing and tap on the wrench handle with a small hammer or rubber mallet. The shock from the mallet tapping can break the housing loose and let you open it.

6. Finally, this may sound strange, but it is important.  When you apply steady pressure to the wrench to loosen the housing, believe that it will open.  In fact, think about what it will feel like when it breaks loose and opens.

Aer-Max Aeration Units:

Dealer Installation and Setup Video.  This is a complete installation guide furnished by a vendor of the product. Caveat: There are more ways than one to install the unit. This isn’t our favorite way.

Fleck Control Valves:

Instructional Videos from Pentair Water University: Fleck 5600 & 2510 Valves  — Links to the manufacturer’s support videos for Fleck 5600 and 2510 Controls

Dealer’s video on Seal and Spacer change for Fleck 2510 AIO.   Excellent step-by-step instructions from start to end of seal and spacer repair for Fleck 2510 AIO.  It works for all 2510 controls. Includes how to do it with or without the special tool set.

Gazette Fair Use Statement

Water News

The “how much water should you drink” question has been visited so many times that we’ll spare you the details, but Healthline has a good article that addresses the issue well.  Spoiler: It doesn’t say drink eight glasses a day.  

Exceptional Drought in Kansas and other Mid-US States

Pervasive drought conditions have now reached the middle of the U.S., as cities in Southeast Kansas and beyond are facing never-before-seen water scarcity problems. Persistent drought is now affecting Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri and Nebraska. The situation in Kansas is now classified as “exceptional drought” and is threatening not only agriculture but drinking water supplies as well. Water Online. 

Arizona’s governor has canceled a deal that sold vast amounts of Arizona’s scarce water to Saudi Arabian cattle ranchers.  Full story at MSN.COM.

Do Water Fleas Hold the Answer to Water Pollution and Improved Human Health?

According to Water Online, “Tiny water fleas could play a pivotal role in removing persistent chemical pollutants from wastewater – making it safe to use in factories, farms and homes, a new study reveals.

“Scientists and engineers have discovered a method to harness Daphnia to provide a scalable low-cost, low-carbon way of removing pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and industrial chemicals from wastewater. This approach avoids the toxic byproducts typically associated with current technologies.”  Full article.

Giant Lake Cleanup Project Announced by EPA

In mid-October, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced funding for the largest cleanup project to ever be implemented under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and the Great Lakes Legacy Act, thanks to historic resources from President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda. Under a new project agreement between EPA and five non-federal sponsors, an estimated investment of $450 million will go toward the cleanup of nearly two million cubic yards of contaminated sediments from the Milwaukee Estuary Area of Concern. Full story.

EPA Declares War On TCE

On October 23,  the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposal to ban all uses of trichloroethylene (TCE), an extremely toxic chemical known to cause serious health risks including cancer, neurotoxicity, and reproductive toxicity. TCE is used in cleaning and furniture care products, degreasers, brake cleaners, and tire repair sealants, and a variety of safer alternatives are readily available for many uses. This action, taken under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), would protect people from these health risks by banning the manufacture, processing, and distribution of TCE for all uses.

The toxicity and dangers of TCE have been known for many years and the EPA’s action is long overdue. EPA found that TCE causes liver cancer, kidney cancer, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. It also causes damage to the central nervous system, liver, kidneys, immune system, reproductive organs, and is dangerous for fetal development. These risks are present even at very small concentrations of TCE.The best protection for homes and businesses against TCE are carbon filtration and reverse osmosis.

Encroaching water from the Mississippi River has necessitated more thorough disinfecting, which leaves behind dangerous chemicals

The water for a community along Louisiana’s Gulf coast has seen a significant increase in the levels of contaminants known as disinfection byproducts, according to recent state water tests reviewed by the Guardian. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), long-term exposure to such substances poses an increased risk of cancer.

The findings have emerged as many residents along Louisiana’s southern coast have faced saltwater intrusion from the Gulf of Mexico.

Since early summer, the combination of drought and rising sea levels has helped drag salty water from the ocean up the Mississippi River. The high levels of saltwater have made much of the region’s water undrinkable. But public health experts have also voiced worries that the saltwater intrusion could, over time, corrode the region’s ageing water infrastructure, leach heavy metals into the drinking water and create other knock-on problems.

The findings have emerged as many residents along Louisiana’s southern coast have faced saltwater intrusion from the Gulf of Mexico. Full article from The Guardian.