Dirty Water Delaware
Most of our drinking water comes from public water treatment plants which draw from sources like the Brandywine valley. According to the Department of Public Water Division the filtration process looks like this:
Step 1: water channeled from streams/rivers into sedimentation basins where chemicals are added to clump together sediment and foreign nutrients
Step 2: water is pushed by pumps through four microfiltration racks (places where particles in the water are filtered out)
Step 3: water is then treated with chlorine
The troubling reality is while these filtration plants seem to be doing a good job at cleaning our water they are actually missing a ton. The EPA has strict regulations on urban meniscal water sources, but NONE on rural water sources such as wells because they are considered ‘private’. Rainsoft, a manufacturer of home water treatment systems, has equipment, which is chosen by NASA and used in their spacecraft, that has the ability to test water within .0003 microns. Meanwhile public filtration systems are required to test within .1 microns. This means that the ‘city water’, which has ‘strict regulations’ actually embodies a ton of harmful substances which is tested on exponentially lower standards than Rainsofts equipment. Large quantities of lead and other metals, calcium, limestone, and nitrates constitute the harmful substances that are allowed to occupy the water you drink.
James Haburcak, a water representative for Rainsoft, says that he does business in every inch of Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. He says, “Majority of families are unaware the reality of water quality. People really only think about it consciously when they hear things about Flint, Michigan. A lot of it has to do with ignorance- government doesn’t want everyone to know how bad it is.” Haburcak explained that Rainsoft tests for nitrates, chlorides, hardness (rock), and TDS- total dissolved solids, which are essentially every particle that constitutes your water that is not in fact water. Haburcak told me he would test bottled water, large brands like Poland Spring and Deer Park, alongside the household water system results. He said they were equally as bad and that the companies essentially sell bottled tap water, the same water running through your home water system.
Rainsoft offers their clients carbon tanks, well- softeners, and acid neutralizers to help filter out the additional nutrients in the water that are harmful and corrosive in nature. He says that families see softer skin and hair, appliances and clothes last longer, utility bills decrease significantly, and people use smaller amounts of soap. Interestingly enough,
“manufacturers know they have to cut through people’s water, so they constantly redesign their products and super-concentrate everything because the water is so bad. That’s why people develop skin allergies to different detergents and even to water”, says Haburcak.
People in cities with regulations on the water they drink face these issues, consume incredible amounts of this water and have sediments, chemicals, and rocks build up in their system. What is even scarier to think about are the individuals not in cities, or suburbia, that get their water from wells in their backyard without any form of filtration or regulation. The water in Delaware is a PROBLEM; especially with the new political change in Washington threatening to constrict, or do away with, the EPA. People are ignorant to the danger posed by the one of the most widely consumed substances and it has a direct impact not just on the people in Delaware but all across the nation.
