The objective of this blog is to inform people, using the simplest language possible on the quality of our drinking water, problems people have with their tap water, what causes limescale in your kettle, green staining on your bath, brown colour in water, rotten egg smell, taste, odour, high ph levels, iron in water, bacteria, ecoli, the issue of having chlorine, fluoride and chemicals in our drinking water. I am also going to try and offer the best possible solutions for people to eliminate these contaminants from their well or mains water supplies by filtration, ion exchange and/or  chemical treatment.

Did you know that Ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Persians , Romans and Greeks all have recorded the many benefits of boiling and filtering water to improve its purity and taste.  However it wasn’t until 1790 that an English woman by the name of Johanna Hempel obtained the very first patent for a water filter.  In 1839 John Simpson invented the slow-sand filter for public drinking water and put it into use at London’s public water works.

But what does filtration mean? Well, technically it is the process or processes of separating suspended matter (such as silt, sand, organic matter, iron, bacteria, algae etc – also known as TURBIDITY) from a liquid.

CLOUDINESS/DISCOLOURATION IN WATER

Generally people on well supplies will notice cloudiness or discolouration more in their tap water than people on a mains or municipal supply due to the  lack of water treatment  on the well.  This discolouration or cloudiness can be caused by excess air in the water. The cloudiness often disappears if you give the water a chance to stand for 30 seconds.
Another cause can be due to heating the water, which can cause very fine particles such as silt, sand, iron, algae to precipitate out of the water.  In very rare cases methane gas can be the cause of the cloudiness but this is generally only common in Marsh water sources.

HOW TO REMOVE CLOUDINESS/DISCOLOURATION

For residential water the most popular way of removing this turbidity is by passing the water through a tank of granular type media such as a sand filter, anthracite, calcite, carbon, or pumicite.

Water softeners and Iron removal units may also be used.  With regards to well supplies especially it is always best to have your water tested and analysed to determine what must be reduced or removed before installing a water system.
For more free advice on water treatment view www.ewtechnologies.ie or email [email protected]