Common Drinking Water Treatment Methods

Common Drinking Water Treatment Methods

Drinking water treatment varies from area to area, but there are a few basic steps that most modern treatment entails. The water goes through several steps of filtration and chemical enhancement. Some chemicals are used to take out the larger particles from the water, binding them to other particles so they can be filtered out later. Other chemicals are added to kill some of the bacteria that cause some types of drinking water contamination.

Unless the water comes from a well, any water that reaches the public supplies is required to be treated with chlorine. By the time it reaches the public, it has also been treated with aluminum sulfate and lime, among other chemicals. Some of these chemicals do remain in the water in some small quantity.

Bottled water generally has a different drinking water treatment that it must undergo. Some bottled water is spring water and some is simply municipal tap water. Wherever the water came from, it is generally distilled to make it more pure. This removes the essential minerals from it and can change the taste.

The treatment of any water must end in a result that can pass EPA tests. The guidelines are set up to allow a small amount of many harmful substances. Some municipalities have stricter guidelines that the EPA requires, but most are simply trying to stay within those set guidelines. If there are known to be toxic substances in the supply that there are no EPA requirements for, those substances are generally not tested for and are not treated.

There is another layer of protection from drinking water contamination that many people use at home. Filters for the home come in several different types, including those that filter all water coming into the house. Those filters can remove contaminants that are still present after the preliminary municipal treatment.

Some use filters on their kitchen faucets to filter the drinking water or a shower filter for bathing. These usually use carbon as a natural filter material to remove chlorine and other chemicals that make up many of the drinking water contamination. Some also pair carbon with sub micron filtration and other effective methods of filtration. This type of drinking water treatment is effective for taking out many contaminants that would have otherwise reached the people in the household.

There are so many different types of drinking water contamination that most municipal treatment plants can't possibly keep up with them all. New ones are constantly being introduced as the landscape and population changes. When one type is mostly filtered out, another enters the local water supply. This has led to more and more of the public using their own filters as their own drinking water treatment.

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