Renaissance Water
Renaissance Water
Health begins with water
Drinking Water Sources
The sources of drinking water (both tap and bottled water) include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, springs, and wells. As water travels over the surface of the land or through the ground, it dissolves naturally-occurring minerals and, in some cases, radioactive material, and can pick up substances resulting from the presence of animals or from human activity.
Contaminants that may be present in source water include:
- Microbial contaminants, such as viruses and bacteria, which may come from sewage treatment plants, septic systems, agricultural livestock operations, and wildlife.
- Inorganic contaminants, such as salts and metals, which can be naturally-occurring or result from urban storm water runoff, industrial or domestic wastewater discharges, oil and gas production, mining, or farming.
- Pesticides and herbicides, which may come from a variety of sources such as agriculture, urban storm water runoff, and residential uses.
- Organic chemical contaminants, including synthetic and volatile organic chemicals, which are byproducts of industrial processes and petroleum production, and can also come from gas stations, urban storm water runoff, and septic systems.
- Radioactive contaminants, which can be naturally-occurring or be the result of oil and gas production and mining activities.
In order to ensure that tap water is safe to drink the EPA prescribes regulations which limit the amount of certain contaminants in water provided by public water systems. FDA regulations establish limits for contaminants in bottled water which must provide the same protection for public health.
Attached below there are water quality testing results from my city (for 2012) that all cities are required to do annually and they are made public.
Click here on City Water Test attachment and note in each case
tri-halomethanes (THM) that includes chloroform which is an FDA listed carcinogen are present in my Oregon water supply and most likely will also be present in your water supply.
This is a naturally occurring by-product of the chlorination process.
This is why all potable tap water sources need to be filtered at the "point of use". We recommend R/O: it is a reliable filtration system because the membrane found on most of these devices can remove particles (compounds) down to 1/10,000 of a micron. A point as reference as to size, commonly found bacteria in nature are from 0.4 to 2 microns.
Carbon and sediment filters are not as reliable as an R/O system and when their absorption capacity is exceeded you will get break though of unwanted compounds. Also, carbon and sediment filters grow bacteria and must be changed frequently.