Reports about contaminated drinking water are scary. Environmental groups, consumer protection organizations and major health organizations are all concerned about drinking water contamination. The groups want the government to "do" something. In the meantime, it's up to us to find out what's in our water and how to get it out.

Soldering Stand

Treatment facilities are supposed to publish test results concerning the public water content on a bi-annual or quarterly basis. These reports are designed to warn officials about contaminated drinking water supplies, so that people can take efforts to protect themselves.

Soldering Stand

The problem is, according to investigative reporters at the Washington Post, a very large number of treatment facilities in major cities around the country are "falsifying" their test results. In other words, there could be drinking water contamination in your city and you would never know, unless you got sick.

Several years back, in Milwaukee, over 100 people died due to cryptosporidium contaminated drinking water. The parasite is microscopic. During the cyst phase of life, it is practically impossible to detect and highly resistant to disinfection methods. So, even when the treatment facilities are doing their jobs, drinking water contamination is still a possibility.

There have been numerous reports of lead contaminated drinking water in many cities around the country, including the nation's capitol, Baltimore, MD and many others. The problem, according to government officials is that in previous years, copper pipes were lined with lead and lead was used at elbow joints for soldering.

As the pipes age, the lead seeps into the water supply and ends up in people's homes. Drinking water contamination of this type does not usually cause death or immediate illness, so there are no outbreaks to report. The Centers for Disease Control are unlikely to get involved. Everyone stands around pointing fingers at everyone else, while people get sicker and sicker.

Lead poisoning causes brain damage, learning disabilities, birth defects, nutritional deficiencies and an assortment of other long-term health problems. Yet in areas with lead contaminated drinking water, no one is telling the average guy on the street that his tap water is dangerous.

In many places, aging gasoline storage tanks have caused obvious drinking water contamination. People can smell it. But, in most cases, contaminated drinking water supplies look and smell normal.

Ralph Nader has been warning people for years that there are over 2000 different cancer causing chemicals in tap water. You can't see the chemicals and only some of them have an odor. Chlorine is one of the chemicals that have been linked to an increased risk of cancer.

The sad thing is that we put chlorine in public water supplies to help prevent drinking water contamination. It kills most of the bacteria and other living things. Apparently, it can eventually kill people, too.

The only way to really be sure that you do not have contaminated drinking water is to invest in a good in-home water purification system. If you're not sure what's in there, you can always have an independent laboratory do some testing for you. It may be the safest thing to do.