Learn me water filtration

Last year about this time we got a letter in the mail saying that our city water exceeds certain limits. I can't remember what exactly it said but I found this old news story on it.

"The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has notified the the City of Temple that the drinking water being supplied to customers had exceeded the maximum contaminant level (MCL) for total trihalomethanes (TTHMs).

TCEQ says TTHMs are a group of volatile organic compounds that are formed when chlorine, added to the water during the treatment process for disinfection, reacts with naturally-occurring organic matter in the water.

The agency also warned that people who drink water containing trihalomethanes in excess of the maximum containment level over several years may experience problems with their liver, kidney, or central nervous systems, and may have an increased risk of getting cancer."

I thought okay, bottled water for me. But that has it's own problems. It's a hassle to deal with. I can't bring it to work in bulk because it magically walks away. I drink a lot of water, I've been averaging around a gallon a day for a while now. That's a lot of plastic bottles. I'd rather not deal with that anymore.

I looked on the Brita website and all I could find was a small blurb about the filters "may help" with removing said compounds. I don't like the sound of that.

What should I be looking for if I want to filter the water from the kitchen tap to drink and not risk long term health issues. There have been no announcements since last year that the issues have been addressed so I'm assuming they haven't.

In reply to Nick (Bo) Comstock:

A chemist?

Let us know what you figure out. Might be a really good solution for other issues...

We use one of these:

Real nice water filter.

It's great. The filter unit in there is awesome. You can pour swamp water in one side and water clean enough for an IV comes out the other. The rest of the stuff in the bottom, rocks, etc., give the water a nice taste. My friend in Bryan bought one too. If you still have the Sporty, you could ride over to his house and look at it.

In reply to Dr. Hess:

How often do you need to change the elements?

We have a reverse osmosis filter under the sink. It has it's own faucet, and I split the line to run one to the ice maker in our refrigerator. We had a cheap Whirlpool unit for a few years, but it was crap, didn't flow worth a damn and was just cheaply made. About a year and a half ago I decided to spend the money on an APEC unit, and I couldn't be happier.

In reply to Nick (Bo) Comstock:

Well, I've been using it for over a year. Maybe close to 2 years. All our drinking water comes from this. I have not changed the element yet. When it starts slowing down, I do occasionally take it apart and scrub the outside with a soap-free green scrubber.

Here's a link to the report (click on the one dated 1/1/2017): http://www.ci.temple.tx.us/375/Water-Treatment

In part, it says:

Some people who drink water containing trihalomethanes in excess of the MCL at a rate of approximately 2 liters per day for many (70+) years may experience problems with their liver, kidney, or central nervous systems, and may have an increased risk of getting cancer. You do not need to use an alternative water supply. However, if you have health concerns, you may want to talk to your doctor to get more information about how this may affect you.

In reply to stuart in mn:

Yeah, about once every three or four months they put us on a boil water advisory without any real reason given. I'm not going to be drinking it straight out of the tap. Plus I come from a place that has been voted some of the best municipal drinking water in the states. This water tastes like E36 M3 to me anyway so I rarely drank it prior to reviving that letter.

You need reverse osmosis. I would HIGHLY recommend this system. It uses industry standard components and filters, very easy and inexpensive to service. I know the APEC units are popular and have good amazon reviews but they are made of very low quality components. I am in the water treatment industry and service those APEC units. The one I linked above is made in Lincoln Nebraska and uses much higher quality components. The price difference is worth it.

In reply to old_:

I'm sure that it is worth the money. But that's a bit more than I was looking to spend. If I owned the house I could see putting that in, but not renting.

As a brewmaster, water quality is a big deal for me.

You need to figure out what it is you want to take out of your water (trihalomethanes in this case) and what is required to remove them. Different treatment systems address different issues. I just googled "removing trihalomethanes".

Fortunately, THMs are a chlorine product, which are really easy to remove. Activated carbon is the recommended method. That is like, the most basic water filtration method. It's what most Brita-type filters are. You can also get units that screw onto a tap, or are install under the sink in line with your cold water line.

If you want to take everything out of your water, you typically need a fancier Reverse Osmosis (RO) system, that will likely require carbon filtration and/or water softening before it to preserve the RO membranes.

I recommend just doing what we do: get a pair of 5 gallon jugs and a simple pump and fill them up from the fancy water filter stations at the local grocery store. The Dolphin manual pump is one of the best on the market. With two jugs you don't have to worry about running out.

Given the relatively low risk associated with THMs, I would only worry about having one source of purified drinking water.

Google the Berkey Filter system.. We've had ours for 3 years now and love it.

I have an RO filter for my saltwater fish tank, it goes through a lot of water, IIRC its 3:1 waste to good, but it comes out at zero TDS. Filters last a long ass time for me.

M3Loco wrote: Google the Berkey Filter system.. We've had ours for 3 years now and love it.

I read that as the "Berkeley Filter system". It took a second to realize you weren't screwing with us...