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In this episode, we uncover the realities of water treatment and the limitations faced by municipal systems. With a focus on personal responsibility, Paul explores the importance of point-of-use reverse osmosis systems and highlights the need for better regulation and transparency in water quality reporting. Tune in to learn how you can ensure the safety of your family’s water supply, whether you use municipal water or rely on a private well.
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Welcome to Water Talk with Paul the Waterman brought to you by Water Pros. Paul the Waterman is Colorado’s expert on all things related to the water we use and drink in our homes. Have you ever thought about where your water actually comes from? Is it safe to drink? Is it harmful to my health, my skin, or my hair? Paul the Waterman knows water and he has the answers. So get ready to talk to the Waterman yourself right now. Call in with your questions to talk with your host, Paul the Waterman. Hey, good afternoon everybody.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome to Water Talk. I’m Paul the Waterman. How are we doing today? Springtime, warm weather, and then we’re going to have snow tomorrow. Can you believe it? I can’t. So I wanted to talk to everybody and kind of recap. We had a lot of really good information that we covered the last two weeks. And one of the things that kind of caught my attention on last week’s show was how wastewater treatment plants Inject the wastewater brine from like if you had a reverse osmosis water treatment plant, the byproduct or the dirty water from the reverse osmosis. basically gets injected into the ground and it can go back to your aquifer. It could feed and fill the aquifer. Eventually it would lead to that way. So I want to bring this up because I think people living on well water are have a false sense of security about the quality where their water source is coming from. So I think it’s safe to say that everybody is in what we call a reusable water state. And so what that means is if you live in town where your municipality feeds you the water, if you live out in your well and you have your own well which you’re tapped into an aquifer, Basically, you’re at a reusable water state. So the municipal water companies, privately owned or publicly owned, I think do their very best to treat the water, to provide us with quality water. But there’s limitations. There’s only so much they can do. So remember, we’re still going to have pharmaceuticals in the water. We’re still going to have the forever chemicals, which are PFAS in the water. We’re going to have the microplastics in the water. But I want to talk to those people, especially those that live up in the foothills, Morrison, Evergreen, Conifer. Do you realize that where your leach field goes? So you have water that goes down the drain. And the solids, just like in a municipality, the solids are designed to settle to the bottom of the holding tank. But then all the other gray water goes over out into a leach field. Now, that leach field, the water from the leach field is going to seep back into the earth, into the ground. And for folks that live up in, you know, evergreen, conifer, Morrison area, it travels through the soil and goes through rocks and crevices and gets right back into your water source, your water supply. So technically, it’s reusable water. That’s exactly how it’s going to function. And so people, it’s very common for folks to have coliform bacteria. Now, coliform bacteria is a precursor to E. coli bacteria. If you have coliform bacteria, you can absolutely, you know, turn into E. coli bacteria. But think about this. I want you to think about all the property or housing subdivisions. Let’s use that word. It’s up in the foothills. Think about everybody that’s on well water and where your leach field is and where your well is. Think about every snow, rain, snow melt, you know, that happens in the spring. We’re going to get, what, I think you guys in the photos could get 6 to 12 inches of snow between tomorrow and Saturday. Once you think about that, and when it melts, it’s going to go right on top of your leach field. And that’s going to create water that’s going to help with the runoff. But I want you to think about all the water that you use, where does that water go from the leach field? So let’s back up. And so a septic system… And a private home is designed pretty much the same way that a huge municipal wastewater treatment plant is. So Mike was kind enough last week to explain this in detail. And basically what happens is that water is dumped into this big pool. and the solids settle to the bottom, and eventually those are the biosolids, and then the other water, in a sense, is run off and fed off and fed right back to the Platte River, the Chatfield Reservoir, the Dillon Reservoir, or in some cases, injected underground. And that’s what refills the aquifers. And don’t think for one minute that an aquifer probably may not be fed by the Platte River. And possibly an aquifer could be fed by water that’s in the chat field. So there’s a lot of ways that aquifers can get replenished. So think about it this way. People that live in the Eastern Plains, you live out in Byers and Bennett. Think about all the neighbors that are surrounding you and your nice little subdivision. Think about where your well is and then think about where your leach field is. So you could technically on a really nice storm, rainy, snowy spring weekend with all that water melt, I think in theory you could get cross-contamination from somebody else’s leach field. If we have standing rainwater, because there’s going to be soil saturation where the soil can only absorb so much. And then when you have standing water, it could move from one area to one yard to the other yard. And do you guys remember, was it three, maybe five years ago, the big flooding that happened in Boulder? Sure. There were neighborhoods that were flooded and got contamination, bacteria contamination, because of the standing water, and it went from Leach Field to somebody’s well. So those are things that we have to think about. Back to, you know, the septic system and then, you know, the wastewater treatment plant. So basically the theory is the same. Now, you know, I was thinking about this driving in to the studio this afternoon where I come from in Illinois. The septic tank was always separated from the gray water. In the gray water, we had an actual what we call leach field where it was completely separated, and it was tunneled to a different location or trenched to a different location. And they dug out a big pit. They filled it up with sewer rock and then covered it back up with earth. And you could tell where the leach field was, the gray waters, the soapy water, the hard water, because the grass was really tall and thick. but it wasn’t associated with the septic tank. That was in a different location. So here, everything, they’re all the same. So the water basically goes out, no matter if you flush the toilet or you take a shower, the water passes through over the septic tank out into the leach field. So all water goes into the septic tank, and then the water runoff goes through the septic tank and out into the leach field, and the leach field size is based upon you know, the size of the home and how much water usage their engineer is going to look at and think, okay, you know, this is, you know, what we figure this leach field could handle 3,000 gallons of water a day. Or this leach field could handle 5,000 gallons of water a day. So that’s where they’re designed. And some homes that are bigger, you also have to figure water filtration. They calculate that, plus because of water filtration needs to be used in order for irrigation because some… On these higher end homes where they have well water and high iron content, they want to treat that iron content so it doesn’t stain all the outdoor, you know, what do you call that? The stone decorative rocks and stoneware, you know, that’s outside. So, you know, that also will take in consideration. But my main point is that the wastewater byproduct water, that goes through the leach field absolutely is going to end up in your aquifer. And especially I mentioned the folks who live in the foothills, only because of elevation and sloping. So when water goes into the ground, it travels through different valleys. Water has an ability to create its own path. No matter, you can, you guys ever drive, you know, go up, was it Highway 40 to, you know, to Grand Lake? You ever notice that the really nice rocks up there, the rock wall that they made as you go climbing up the mountain, you see the white staining on the brick wall? That’s water that’s penetrated through that wall. So you can tell they have certain drainage pipes that they’re hoping the water goes through, but eventually water will create its own path, is my point. So the same when you’re up in the foothills and you’re, you know, you have water that’s in your elevation and your water is running through your leach field through the septic tank at elevation, it’s going to go into the ground, but it’s going to find its own path and it’s eventually going to end up in your aquifer again. So I think it’s safe to say that we’re dealing with reusable water. So reusable water means that all the wastewater that we have from a water treatment system is going to end up back in our aquifer. And that’s the same with your local municipalities. It’s going to end up back into our aquifers. So the farther east that we live, there’s various different water treatment issues that we run into. You can have high sodium content, naturally high sodium content. You can have hardness. You can have iron. You can have sulfur. There’s just such a variety of water issues, high total dissolved solids. And it all can be treated. But then what we have to start thinking about is, is the discharge water and where that’s going to end up going to. Now, as it goes through the earth, I think it’s safe to say that the earth will help filter out certain other contaminants. But the forever chemicals and the microplastics, eventually with rain and snow, eventually as they get captured by the soil, the extra water flow that occurs because of Mother Nature, it’ll end up right back into the aquifer and right back into our main water supply. And so that’s why I think it’s really necessary for everyone to think about treating their drinking water. And you treat your drinking water with a point-of-use reverse osmosis. But it all starts with the hardness test to make sure that your water hardness is within operating parameters for the reverse osmosis. Reverse osmosis is nanofiltration. It’s at 0.001 micron. And one of the things that we’re going to talk about after we come back from this commercial is commercial reverse osmosis systems and the importance of them having pretreated water. And on a bigger scale, if you can’t pretreat the water, then I think they should not be used. And we’ll talk about that when we get right back.
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SPEAKER 03 :
What’s in your water? Are you unknowingly drinking hormones, antibiotics, or dangerous chemicals? Paul the Waterman here from WaterPros. Now is the time to have our professionals help you with affordable solutions to be sure your water is free from those contaminants. Call WaterPros today and visit WaterPros.net. Toxic chemicals and bacteria last forever in your water if untreated. It’s a crucial time to think about the quality of your water to be sure it’s safe for you and your family. Call WaterPros today or go to WaterPros.net.
SPEAKER 02 :
Forever Chemicals in our water is now a part of our life. Forever Chemicals means that these chemicals don’t break down. Call Water Pros for your free in-home evaluation of the concerns of Forever Chemicals and the ways to remove Forever Chemicals from your family’s water supply. Call 303-862-5554 and request your free evaluation or go to waterpros.net.
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This is KLZ 560 AM, your home station.
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Welcome back to Water Talk. I’m Paul the Waterman. So let me explain something real quick. Gray water is the water that comes from taking a shower and using your washing machine or emptying the kitchen sink from doing a load of dishes by hand or the dishwasher. So, you know, that’s soapy, sudsy water that has all the dirt from the clothes and the dirt and food from the dishes. The other water, the black water, is water that, to my understanding, comes from the waste treatment plant after it passes through and the solids have been dropped off, so to speak. And then they treat it before they send it out to whatever location it goes to. And there’s also the wastewater that comes from the filtration system in a water waste treatment plant. And so these are things that a further discussion and study has to take place. And it’s going to jump into my topic with, you know, commercial reverse osmosis units for the purpose of water treatment, water filtration. And here’s why I think they shouldn’t be used. Reverse osmosis membranes are not designed to filter hard water. Reverse osmosis membranes are solely designed to filter water free from hardness. Then the nanofiltration is what captures the chemicals, the pharmaceuticals, and other organic or non-organic materials out of the water. Commercial reverse osmosis units, in most cases, it’s not practical to pre-treat the water with a water softener because then you have the wastewater from a commercial size water softener that you would have to deal with in addition to the wastewater with the reverse osmosis. So what’s happening… is that reverse osmosis membranes, let’s say you have a system that’s a 30,000 gallon a day RO unit. So you have six reverse osmosis membranes for discussion purposes. The first two RO membranes could be used as sacrificial for where all the hardness is trapped and removed. The problem with that is that the hardness will then cause microplastics to become nanoplastics because the plastics will bounce off the hardness because the hardness will oxidize and will convert to a film. So you have to understand that water is forced through a reverse osmosis membrane. There’s a pump. And some of these pumps could be forcing it through at 12 gallons per minute to 22 gallons per minute. So when you’re forcing water through, the membrane has no choice. It’s just there. It has to take it. And so water is forced through it. And as the hardness builds up on those sacrificial membranes, then that’s where the microplastics become nanoplastics, and then eventually what happens is that the membranes themselves will break down, and that’s how they found nylon fibers in bottled water, was because of the manufacturing process. So reverse osmosis, in some cases, is, I think, the wrong application on a commercial side if you can’t pre-treat the water. If you can pre-treat the water, then perfect. And that’s what they’re designed for. But I really think they should think about what they’re doing if they’re using a commercial reverse osmosis with hard water. And hard water, that’s what happened to the bottled water industry. Do you guys remember, was it a year, two years ago, when there’s news outlets doing stories about nanoplastics being found in bottled water? And then scientists that did studies would say, I’m not going to drink bottled water. Because of that, because it’s because of the manufacturing process. And the Independent Bottle Water Association, instead of them telling everybody, hey, we appreciate these findings, we’re going to look into it. Instead of, you know, and looking how bottle water is manufactured, instead of doing that, they basically said, well, there’s really no studies, you know, to indicate what the harm really is. Let’s jump forward to this year and what we played on this show, a segment from Fox News, where now we have nanoplastics that penetrated into the human brain. So nanoplastics not only are in our water supply, we can also get them from food. We also, you know, get them, you know, when we wash our clothes, certain fabrics, I guess, have plastic in them. So that’s another avenue. So these are things that I really think we need to stop and take a look at. What we really need to do is look at the whole big picture of what we’re doing with the quality of our water and water filtration. So back to the septic systems. When you take water and you send water through the drain, then what happens is the process of removing those solids, the waste, the human waste, and as the human waste is converted to biosolids and the biosolids are then given away as fertilizer, Something that we need to think about too is, you know, testing these biosolids and seeing how safe they are because of the forever chemical contamination. So we’ve done, you know, several shows regarding the forever chemicals, you know, how they came to be with, you know, DuPont and 3M. And then we also talked about how farms got contaminated. Herds of dairy cattle had to be slaughtered because of the PFAS contamination. The milk was no good. We also did research showing that we had over 20 million acres of possible contamination farmland with PFAS contamination, which is also basically going to end up in our food chain, our food supply. So this is something that we really need to take a bigger, broader look at. And then the other thing we have to look at is what the heck we’re going to do With the waste, because human waste or biosolids, if it’s not safe because of PFAS contamination, that’s one issue. The wastewater that comes from water filtration at a water treatment plant, You know, if we’re injecting that into the ground and if that’s going to end up in back into the aquifers, then we really need to let people know about it. See, there’s a water quality report that everybody is supposed to do. What I mean, everybody, every single municipality that provides you water, if it’s public or private, has to submit a water quality report to let you know exactly what’s in your water. Now, I don’t believe they’re being 100% truthful in telling us everything that’s in the water, and I think the reason why they’re not doing that, in my personal opinion, is the fear factor. But we should be able to know what contamination levels we have. What’s the actual pharmaceutical element in our water supply? Now, we had a person who engineered aquifers on the radio show with Scott and I one time. And he told us that when they tested the water, every major over-the-counter pharmaceutical tested positive in that water source. And so I think that that’s something that we should know about. So if that’s the case, why isn’t that on our water quality report? I’ve seen where little private water resources, all right, let me back up and say this again. Let’s say you live out in a community that’s controlled by an HOA and it’s a municipality that has, oh, let’s say 60 residents. And so you have to have a licensed water operator who basically ensures that the water is treated with chlorination, chlorine. And then they are supposed to, you know, treat the water and then have that water submitted for sampling for testing to make sure that the water, you know, is within the EPA guidelines and treatments. So, you know, I know for a fact that there’s companies out there that are late in the testing and the reporting. And that’s important because that’s technically a violation. But then we also have an issue where the state lab is shut down now because we had the lab technicians that were falsifying water tests. Let’s take a quick break. Luke, then we have a caller I want to go to.
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SPEAKER 03 :
Hello, Paul the Waterman here for WaterPros. In the last six months, you’ve received letters from your local water company regarding the dangerous forever chemicals in your water.
SPEAKER 04 :
Several local news television outlets have done segments on the dangers in our drinking water. Trust me when I say pharmaceuticals are the next issue. WaterPros employs the latest technology and an expertly trained staff to help you with hard water and mitigating forever chemicals. Book your complimentary water test now at waterpros.net. That’s waterpros.net.
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If you have hard water, smelly water, or water that just tastes bad, improve the quality of your water with the professionals at Water Pros. Water is a precious resource that’s a part of everyday life. Harmful cleaners, forever chemicals, microplastics. and pharmaceuticals end up in our water supply and they don’t just magically disappear. Water treatment should not cost tens of thousands of dollars or require long-term financing. For KLZ listeners, a complete WaterPro’s water treatment system start at only $31.95 installed. See why people are trusting the professionals with Water Pros. Water Pros is a family-owned and veteran-owned business dedicated to providing you the best in water treatment for less than the other guys. Go to waterpros.net today and request your free water test. Or call 303-862-5554. That’s 303-862-5554. And ask for the KLZ Listener Special. $31.95 for a whole house water softener and point of use reverse osmosis.
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KLZ 560 AM, your home station.
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Welcome back to Water Talk. I’m Paul the Water Man. So, Jeremy, thank you for giving us a call. How are you doing?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, first, Paul, thank you for being one of the only people who really are taking the time to listen to the story. Honestly, with everything that’s going on, I would say stress level is at about 100.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. So let me tell you what’s going on, folks. This is why Jeremy’s on today because this is something I think is extremely important. So if you are a renter and you rent a property that has well water, Jeremy and I found out that you’re on your own. Jeremy, just so you know, I called this morning to the state health department, and you want to talk about a frustrating process. They have this answering machine computer system that you spend 15 minutes navigating through before you get to somebody who you ultimately have to leave a voicemail, and they never called me back, which doesn’t surprise me. But, you know, if you are if you’re renting in your own well water and you get a water test back that states that you have radon in the water, you have high total dissolved solids in the water, or even if you have coliform bacteria in the water, basically, if the water is not safe to drink. We’re here to tell you, you are completely on your own and there’s nothing the landlord has to do to make it safe drinking water. So Jeremy, sir, share with us, you know, your process and frustration and kind of where you are today with all this.
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All right. Yes, sir. So in a nutshell, sir, I moved up to Connerford to just kind of get away and, uh, enjoy some peace, get away from the city. But it’s turned into a living nightmare because I would say one month into my living situation, I was taking showers. I started noticing rashes on my body. And then I started noticing as I drank the water because I love drinking water. Foolishly, I assumed the water was going to be safe because of what he said and how he promised he was going to be updating and putting filters on because he said for 10 years, He’s run that well water straight in the house, and supposedly no one’s gotten sick. Well, as you say, Ray, it will take time. But anyways, I asked the gentleman at the end of November to take care of it. He got very upset at me. He did not appreciate me asking him to take care of something. December came around. I, as a contractor who runs a handyman business, who’s been doing plumbing since 14, uh, my father owned an HVAC master plumbing. That’s a little bit of my history. So I, you know, I have some understanding. I offered to do this to the gentlemen, just materials. I’ll do it for free for you. Again, he got highly upset, offended, um, that you would ask this from him. And he’d always say he never had time to do it, but with the new tenants coming in, he would repair their cars. And that’s just kind of a frustrating level to hear your landlord say he can’t fix the water, but someone moving upstairs and he’ll fix the car so he can get his rent. That, to me, just speaks volumes on what he’s focused on, his money.
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So let me ask you a quick question. So then after you bought this to his attention and you kept bringing it to his attention, it escalated to the point where he said, okay, if you don’t like it, move. Pretty much, correct? Correct.
SPEAKER 09 :
Correct. And it came down to two things, Paul. I have, there was an air issue and a moldy issue and the water issue. Anytime you asked him to look at something, it was just go ahead and get out and move. And to be honest, if maybe I was in my 11th month, but honestly, anyone who just moves within a month and a half to two months of just getting moved in, you’re settled in, it’s the middle of winter, very costly just to pick up the move, as we all know. Everybody has their own budgets. We’ve got to follow our own budgets, so that takes time to find the right house. Correct. So come in February, I was someone who was paying two months up front, and in February I brought this to his attention again because as I talked to you, I went out and bought, which anybody should do this. They’re very cheap and inexpensive, and you’re going to know how your water level is doing. It’s just easy DTS watered. It looks like a little dipstick. It just goes in the water, and it will tell you your level. Then it will tell you if it’s safe or not, depending on how fancy. But even a cheap one will tell you. So I went out and I bought this, and immediately, as soon as I stuck it in, my first reading, there were over 550 BPMs.
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What that is, just for the lifting audience, that’s a total dissolved solid meter, and that measures all the dissolved solids in the water. The EPA states that anything that’s over 500 is unsafe to drink. So it doesn’t meet EPA standards. So at that point, again, you know, landlords are not responsible to fix it. This is what’s funny about it. Certain mortgages, and we found, I found that majority of them are FHA loans or VA loans. They require a potable water tester, meaning that water is safe to drink. The three main tests that they used to do was, number one, it was just a bacteria test. Then they wanted a bacteria test and a nitrate test. Some want a bacteria test and a lead test. And, you know, very few, you know, look for that total dissolved solid test. But bacteria, you know, you have coliform bacteria in your water sample. Your radon levels are over 4,000 picoliters. Now, radon is common in, you know, water here in Colorado because it’s basically from decay rock. It’s a gas. So if it’s in the air, it’s going to be in the water supply. But once you bought this to, you know, the landlord’s attention, and then he just eventually, you know, you’re forced to go through the legal process.
SPEAKER 09 :
Correct. Because he knows one is going to take someone with deep pockets to take him to court. And I really believe this. He’s really just waiting for somebody to really get sick before he has to fix this. And yeah, his whole attitude is, was putting a finger on my face, laughing at me, saying, just go buy bottled water. Well, bottled water is fine, but what about bathing in it? What about when you cook with it? What about when you wash your dishes? What about when you’ve got to wash your certain foods off that need to be washed before you eat them or cook them? You know, what about your clothes? That, you know, you can drink bottled water, but you’re still getting exposed to it. And for this man to laugh in your face… and say go ahead and call someone, and he knows that no one can do anything unless, like he said, it’s got to go through the courts in such a deep way, it’s going to end up probably bankrupting me at this point because, yes, he tried to do an illegal eviction because in February I really got on him about this, and it got to a point where I just walked out and he told me to shut the H up And it just sounds like you need to leave, as in he’s not going to fix anything. And I don’t understand, because I’ve never had a landlord act like that. I’ve had landlords bring a legit concern to the man or female who owns his property, and they’ll fix it. This man thinks playing with people’s lives because… The law says he doesn’t have to really fix it. Like if I was in Jefferson County in the suburbs, they would wreak havoc all over this man’s life. There’s a difference.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, Jeremy, there’s a difference between municipality and private well water. Jeremy, listen, I’ve got to run, but thank you for calling, and you and I, let’s stay in touch, okay? You take care of yourself.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, Paul. I’ll talk to you soon. Thank you again for bringing this to the light.
SPEAKER 04 :
Bye-bye. So what this means is that, you know, when you go and you’re renting a house, you absolutely have to insist on getting your water tested. You need to know up front before you take possession what the water quality is. And if there’s something wrong with the quality of water, you bring it to the landlord’s attention and see if there’s something you can work out up front. So I’ve done some research on this. So Jeremy’s in an unfortunate situation. Now here what can happen. Jeremy can go to court, he can present to a judge that the water quality is clearly unsafe. There’s two things that make the water not safe to drink. It’s the coliform bacteria and the total dissolved solids. Now, radon, his radon levels were at 4,000 picoleters. Is that, you know, by EPA standards, you don’t want anything within that level of radon in the water. However, there’s some companies out there that their thought process is as long as your radon is below 9,000 picoleters, you really don’t have to worry about it. But the fact that radon’s in the water, and it’s very common up here in Colorado, you know, that causes people to cause concern. So the only remedy is that you take this to court, you present this to a judge, and then what happens is the judge condemns the property. The judge doesn’t force him to fix it for you. He basically can condemn the property, and before the landlord can rent it, the property out again, they have to fix that condition. So does it help you, the tenant that’s there? No. And so unfortunately, Jeremy is in a tough spot. I thought… that there were laws in the state of Colorado that protected renters to ensure that their water quality have to be safe drinking water standards. I was disappointed, and I called the state health department to see if I could get someone to answer that question for us. And as of yet, we haven’t got a reply. And if we do, I will definitely update you on this. But my main point was to let people know that if you’re renting… And you’re renting a home that has well water. You absolutely want to make sure before you take possession, before that lease becomes active, that you check out the water quality. And you want three main tests, in my personal opinion. Number one is bacteria. Number two is total dissolved solids. That’s important. And the other thing is that you want to do, you know, a radon slash, you know, uranium test, especially if you live up in the foothills. Because I have customers on Coal Creek Canyon that have extremely high levels of uranium. And again, that’s normal and natural because water decays rock and that’s where uranium comes from. So I want to take the rest of our show and talk about well water issues. And I want to thank somebody first. We have a listener who got their water treatment system installed today. And I want to thank Steve Whiteside. He’s up in Golden up at Coal Creek Canyon there. And I want to thank him. Steve got a dual tank water softener. And we’re going to, you know, provide him with soft water, him and his wife. We’re going to have great quality water. And, you know, one of the things you have to think about when you’re on well water. is, you know, water discharge. And we talked about early in the show where water goes out into the leach field. And so water usage is something that you want to calculate when you’re thinking about water filtration, water treatment. And so, you know, in well water, we like to recommend a dual tank water softener because a dual tank water softener uses less water because it takes clean water from one tank to backwash the exhausted tank. So by using soft water during the regeneration process, you use less water, you use less water softening salt, and they’re super efficient. So, you know, Steve, thank you very much. And we appreciate you becoming a part of the Water Pros family. And thank you for listening to the show. You know, let’s go back real quick to, you know, what we were talking about with renters and well water. Something else that you guys should consider is, you know, also when you rent a home, you should, you know, absolutely get the permission and state it up front that, hey, if I want water filtration, water treatment, that you’re allowed to do so. You know, that’s something that you should, you know, you should absolutely think about. Unfortunately, in today’s landscape, there’s some legislation that was passed, I think, that’s designed to protect renters. But then I think there’s others that they just clearly haven’t thought about. One of the things they haven’t thought about is water treatment, water filtration on privately owned wells. See, if you live in a municipality, you’re regulated by the EPA. But here’s something else to think about about that. The EPA has regulations and standards for the forever chemicals or PFAS. And when we were talking to our guest, Mike, the last two weeks, one of the things that I wonder is a municipality right now has not come up with a foolproof plan to remove PFAS from the water. And one of the proven and allowed technologies, I say allowed, that the EPA approved, they approved three methods, granular activated carbon, anion resin, and reverse osmosis. And that’s why I was talking earlier in the show about reverse osmosis. Reverse osmosis units are not designed to operate in hard water. They’re just not. So it’s a short-term solution. But then we have the wastewater that we have to worry about. What are we going to do with all the wastewater contamination that has all the PFAS? What are we going to do with the reverse osmosis membranes that are contaminated with the PFAS contamination? Because technically, that’s like a hot product, a hot waste product because of the contamination. But… If a municipality cannot or has not developed a process to remove the PFAS to meet the EPA standards and the EPA says they’re going to find that local municipality, where does that money go to? If the EPA finds a local municipality, where does that money go to? Does it go to a slush fund? Where does it go to? And then here’s the other question. These grants that the previous administration handed out to local water districts for the purpose of studying and coming up with the process of removing the forever chemicals out of the water supply, what has happened? Have we found, is there anything been on the news lately about the PFAS contamination and the coming up EPA standards? So I’m hoping that the new administration takes a common sense approach and looks at this and creates standards that are reasonable. But how, as the EPA, can you make a standard on a PFAS contamination in the municipal water supply before you come up with a way to remove it. Now, point of use for reverse osmosis systems or a whole house anion resin unit or a whole house activated carbon unit, you can treat the water in your home. So, why not give grants or tax breaks to every single American citizen so they can purchase water filtration that can eliminate the PFAS from the water supply. And then what we’d have to do is have a special garbage bag that we would put in the recycling bin of exhausted filters or filter media. So then that can be properly disposed of, most likely incinerated, burnt. And then the other question I have is that if you go ahead and you take, you know, exhausted media, exhausted filters, and if we burn that chemical, is that chemical going to disappear and be incinerated by the heat and the flame? Or is it just going to get back in the atmosphere based on the smoke? See, these are things that I have yet to see any research on. How would we dispose of a hot filtration media? What I mean is media that’s full of contaminants. So right now what’s happening is nothing. So when you go through a water filtration and water treatment, the PFAS are passing right on through. And when you have your home that’s either up in the foothills, anywhere in the state of Colorado, when you’re in well water, you’re basically, your water discharge that goes from the septic tank over the septic tank to the leach field can eventually work its way back to the aquifer. So aquifers, in a sense, are being replenished by contaminated water. Absolutely. So this is why go to waterpros.net. We’ve got plenty of research information that you can read documentation that you can study, do your own research. The EPA, if you go to the EPA website, they definitely have the webinars that I listened to last year regarding the PFAS issue. And they’ll have what they’ve proven to remove the PFAS contamination listed, which is activated carbon, reverse osmosis, point of use drinking water systems, and anion resin units. Anion resin units… Our anion resin is, I think, is a super filtration media. It has to be supported by soft water. Notice the common denominator here. Everything has to be supported by soft water. Sorry for the break there to take a drink. I’m talking too much today. Anyway, everything has to be supported by by soft water. So what that means is this filtration media for it to be effective has to have soft water. Hard water really messes things up. So hard water will destroy anion resin, make it ineffective, ruin it. Hard water will destroy a reverse osmosis membrane, make it ineffective and ruin it. So ideally, and hard water will break down and destroy activated carbon, make it ineffective and ruin it. So if you start with soft water, then your other filtration methods will filter out what they’re designed and engineered to do. And back to anion resin. You know, anion resin will remove not only the forever chemicals, but also can remove nitrates, can remove fluoride out of the water supply. And think of this. An anion resin system is recharged just like a water softener. So what water softening salt is… It’s a detergent. It’s saline. It’s not a filter media. It’s saline. Saline is the rinsing agent. So the water softening salt is dissolved to a saline solution. The saline solution is controlled by the programming of the water softener control valve or the anion resin control valve. Based upon the levels of contamination and the amount or the cubic foot of filter media you have, you determine the pounds of salt that are used. that needs to be dissolved that turns into the soap or the cleaning agent. Let’s take a quick time out.
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Forever chemicals, microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and total chlorine are real contaminants in our water. Clean water is essential for our everyday life. Water is the best flushing agent our bodies can use. We cook with water, we bathe in water, and we grow our food with water. Call WaterPros for your free in-home evaluation. WaterPros can educate you about the concerns of forever chemicals, microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and total chlorine, and discuss ways to remove these contaminants from your family’s water supply. Call 303-862-5554 and request your free evaluation, or go to WaterPros.net to request your free in-home consultation. WaterPros is a family-owned, veteran-owned business dedicated to offering the best solutions to meet the needs of the water concerns we have today. Call 303-862-5554 today or www.waterpros.net.
SPEAKER 06 :
The EPA is making changes in regulations for water safety because of elevated levels of lead, Gen X, and forever chemicals in water supplies. Locally owned and operated WaterPros has home treatment solutions ready to install today. WaterPros employs the latest technologies and an expertly trained staff to help you with hard water, lead in your water, and mitigating forever chemicals. Book your complimentary test and consultation now, WaterPros.net.
SPEAKER 08 :
AM 560 KLZ, your home station.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome back to Water Talk. I’m Paul the Water Man. So with the last few minutes we have left, let’s do a quick recap. So one, if you’re on well water and you’re renting a home on well water, you’re completely on your own. And so that’s something that you definitely want to negotiate before you move in. you know, definitely, you know, have a water quality clause in your lease. That’s my recommendation. Two, the private owned Sewer and septic system is basically a smaller version of the public municipality sewer and septic system. The engineering, it’s the same design, same thought, and the same result is… that your aquifers are basically filled with reusable water. Aquifers are filled with reusable water. And that’s something that I want everybody to understand because I really truly think that it’s our responsibility for our own drinking water quality and safety. It really truly is. You know, there’s just no way right now that a local municipality, and I believe in my heart that they try and they take their job really seriously. And I believe that they want to give us the best possible quality water that they can. But you know, you have to look at water in two steps. One is the working water that we use every day, the water that we shower and bathe in. Two is that 1% water that we use for drinking and cooking. And I think we need to take the responsibility of our drinking and cooking water. And everything really with water filtration, you need to do a hardness test because if your water is too hard, then that reverse osmosis isn’t going to function properly. It’s not going to function as designed. And when you’re talking about water, P-phosphor chemicals, the nanomicroplastics, the pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceuticals is the next big contamination issue that I don’t think we’ve addressed yet. Go to YouTube and you type in pharmaceuticals in my water. You’ll see videos that were done 10, 15 years ago that talked about pharmaceutical contamination. As I mentioned to you earlier, Scott and I had a guy that we interviewed that called in and we talked to him and he engineers water reservoirs. And, you know, they took a water sample and found every major over-the-counter pharmaceutical in that water supply. When you take a pharmaceutical and you ingest it and your body metabolizes it, it becomes a metabolic. And then when you expel it and you flush the toilet, that is something that can be absorbed by somebody else. And that pharmaceutical doesn’t disappear or disintegrate. You know, they make medication nowadays to last. Some medications, I would think, are almost like a forever chemical. They don’t disappear. And think about this. In the wastewater, you’ve seen news reports, haven’t you, where they can go to a neighborhood and see who’s using cocaine or where the meth is because they test the wastewater? That’s exactly my point. Now, real quick, we also learned that chlorination, this is something I didn’t know, the chlorination in the chloramine is not a bacteria killer. It’s a sterilizer. So I think another thing we should think about for water filtration for our home is our own point of use or whole house ultraviolet light filtration. They do make point of use UVs, but you really should have it connected to a reverse osmosis. But I have a whole house ultraviolet light system myself, but that’s only because, you know, I do a lot of nasal rinses and You know, we’ve seen the reports in municipal water supplies where people in Texas, you know, in Florida, they rinse their nose from a municipal water source and they got a brain eating amoeba. So if you go to the doctor and you have to do, you know, they want you to do nasal flushes, they tell you at the doctor’s office to use, you know, distilled water or bottled water. That’s exactly what they tell you to use. So it’s something that we really need to take at issue. So in closing, everybody’s water is reusable water. And understand what that means. It’s really our responsibility, and we’d love to help you out at Water Pros. Go to waterpros.net. We have all our products and brochures that you can definitely check out, and I’d love to answer any questions that you have. Feel free to reach out to me, and my email’s on our website, and you can just ask whatever questions you have. Thank you very much for listening, and you guys have a very blessed weekend.
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Remember to reach out to Paul the Waterman with your questions and water filtration needs, and be sure to tune in to Water Talk Thursdays at 2 p.m. to talk with Paul. And for more information, find him on the programming page at klzradio.com.
