/r/water
Devoted to the science and politics of water: aquifers, dams, hydrology, boundary disputes, peak water, riparian rights, climate change, drought & flooding, stormwater, groundwater, fish kills, fossil water, and news by the acre-foot.
Welcome to Reddit Water, founded 2008
Water is the most precious resource on Earth. It will be the most contested resource of the 21st century.
Governments, corporations and citizens are now realizing the policy battles of today will have far reaching consequences for communities, nations, political stability, economic opportunities and profits.
Topics: access, agriculture, aquifers, aquatic farming, boundary disputes, bottled water, cleanups, conservation, contamination, dams and dam removal, desalinization, dredging, drought, economics, fish kills, floods, fracking, groundwater, hydrology, hydrogeology, hydropolitics, intrusion, invasive species, irrigation, overdrafts, peak water, policy, pollution, privatization, riparian rights, river compacts, runoff, sanitation, sewage, stormwater, waste, withdrawals
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Water blogs and feeds
Coyote Gulch, John Orr, American West water issues
GLIN, the Great Lakes Information Network
WaterWired, Michael E. Campana, Professor of Geosciences at Oregon State University
Circle of Blue, reporting the global water crisis
@Matt Weiser, covers water issues for the Sacramento Bee
Chance of Rain, Emily Green, LA Times
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Data
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Hydrology & Soil Mechanics Training from the USDA
On the Public Record's reading list for understanding California's water issues
"Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over." --(falsely attributed to) Mark Twain
"Water runs uphill to money." -- the "Law of Los Angeles"
"When the well's dry, we know the worth of water." --Benjamin Franklin
"We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one." --Jacques Yves Cousteau
/r/water
We moved to a different town in central Iowa and since we’ve been in this house (built in the early 80s) I cannot keep the toilets clean. It only takes 3-4 days after cleaning for it to start showing up. The tanks are clean, no sign of it there. We have a water softener that is well maintained. I even replaced two of the toilets with quality self-clean types, so the water runs every so often. We never had this issue anywhere else we’ve lived. What causes this?
it boggles my mind that we still have to distinguish still vs sparkling. The default is still so you have to specify which type of still you would like. It is sparkling water that you must request.
So in short, can I have purified water. Not can you have still water purified.
and also in short. can I have sparkling water.
Thank you for coming to my mini aside.
My home recently tested positive for lead in the water. I am looking for an NSF certified under sink filter for lead, pfas, pfoa, and microplastics. Anything else is good too. I had looked at hydroviv and then Aquasana, but saw both had a large cohort of people who had issues with them on here, so now i don't really know what to do.
I cannot do a reverse osmosis filter. price range is less than $250 for initial filter and setup and about $100 for replacement filters (assuming i change the filter twice per year). Any recommendations?
I just had an undersink filter setup installed by a plumber for the well water here (I purchased the unit myself.) The install is a 4-stage from a company called Apex, with a filter setup that goes: sediment > GAC > Carbon block > UF. My well water was tested prior to this and had a TDS of 54ppm, a hardness of 26ppm, and no contaminants- but turbidity of 50ntu.
I was looking for something relatively simple to clear up the water a bit more for just drinking, rather than using something like a Brita all the time.
Well, with the system installed and flushed I've noticed an odd kind of residue on the water that is not present from the tap right next to it, which goes through the house sediment filter. The 4-stage branches off the same feed line, so it's the same source water. Here's a picture of it: https://imgur.com/a/dvRyTk6
Any ideas what this might be? I'm a bit paranoid not knowing what it is.
Edit: I decided to just leave the water running even longer, despite having flushed it for 10 minutes already. It seems to have greatly reduced the spots, for what that's worth. Carbon perhaps? I'm not used to seeing it form patterns like that.
Edit 2: The manufacturer got back to me and said it's mostly like a food-grade solution used to preserve the ultra-filter.
I installed the Pur horizontal mount and now the faucet water comes out in full force in a narrow stream vs when I use the vertical mount the faucet water comes out with normal force and in a broader stream. When I don't have any mount, the water comes out in full force with a broader stream.
With the horizontal mount, I have to let the faucet water come out slowly. Otherwise due the high pressure of the narrow stream of water, water will splash everywhere. Is this normal for the horizontal PUR mount or did install something wrong?
Hoping to get some input from anyone experienced in water testing. About a 2 months ago one of my neighbors tested for Mercury at very high levels. The county came in and started testing everyone in the neighborhood and two adjoining blocks. All but two houses including mine, in my neighborhood all had containment well water (about 25 houses). The other blocks did not. The state of NJ did their own tests about two weeks ago and are now saying none of the houses have mercury above the limit.
Is it really possible that a lab dedicated to water testing could f up 25 plus tests? Should I get a third opinion? Is there any issues with Method 200.8 or Method 245.1?
1st test:
2nd Test:
I have a water well drilled in 1998. Have had zero issues with amount of water. Well depth is at 90 ft and 8" casing installed for first 20ft.
No smells. Water is hard and I have a softener that does work well. However there is a reddish brown color that will settle in commode tanks and pressure tank especially. I just treated it with a gallon of Clorox mixed with water and dumped down well head using 20 ft of 2" Pipe to keep off casing. This does help but this substance does clog everywhere from well to pressure tank and supply lines. If I forget to use Clorox it can really get bad, as I first see it in tanks of toilet.
I just did the Clorox dump and it was terrible to see the amount of grimey looking water coming out of the flush I do at bottom of pressure tank. I let water run for 30 minutes and it still was cloudy. I called my well driller and he told me it was most likely the pressure tank being so clogged at bottom. It is 8 years old now and most likely has this substance at bottom of tank.
I was treating it years ago for iron mineral but it did not help. I am going to get it checked tomorrow but I m pretty certain it is iron bacteria.
Has anyone with well water ever encountered this issue and if so how did you treat it? Yes Clorox every 6 months does help. However cleaning out pressure tank is hard to do. Any suggestions? Ideally this would be best treated at well bottom but I do not know of any way to do this on a daily basis.
I live in the Appalachian Mountains of East TN and have been getting medical supplies, meds, mobility devices, etc. to people with disabilities and medical conditions who lost everything during the flooding caused by Hurricane Helene in TN and Western North Carolina.
People are concerned about what they've been exposed to in the flood waters, mud, and what those things have left behind.
My area and home were not badly affected, but the areas east of me are devastated beyond belief.
A lot of these hard hit areas were near or downstream from factories and facilities that handle a lot of heavy metals and toxic chemicals, some even nuclear.
What tests should people be doing to the soil and water on their properties to ensure everything is safe? Where do they get these tests, and/or who does them?
I'm not knowledgeable about any of these things, so any advice or info is appreciated. Thank you.
Tap water, supermarket water, special water...?
Me and the wife are looking to buy a property in Illinois, Dupage County. The water supply runs from a well which was drilled in 1965.
I under the maintenance portion of it, and understand the benefits of having a private well. And I am ok with all of it however I am just worried about the well drying out. Is that a possibility? Is it highly unlikely?
The property is perfect for us, I am just having this one reoccurring thought.
Thank you in advance
Almost everyone I know chugs plastic bottled water and acts like it’s amazing but I think all brands taste weird. Is it just me?
I feel like this is the correct sub to ask this question, so here goes… The other day at work (I’m a firefighter) we had a strange odor coming from our bathroom. I grabbed our gas detector, which is set to sense methane and CO, and I started getting readings as soon as I walked into the room. I was able to narrow down the source to the sinks. We figured we just had some sewer gas coming from the drains which made sense, so I turned on the water to see if that would clear the gas and hopefully the reading would go down. As soon as I opened the faucet, the reading went up to as high as .5% LEL I was pretty shocked by that, so I went and tried a few other water sources, as well as some without drains like the front hose and fire hydrant in front of the station. All of the water sources were giving readings between .1 and .5% LEL. As far as numbers we look for on gas leak calls, that’s not a high reading as far as determining flammability, but I was very concerned to find that our tap water was getting detectable readings of methane at all. We notified our HazMat team, as well as the local water district. Our hazmat team confirmed the methane readings with the detectors they have, and they were able to also pick up hydrogen sulfide at about 18ppm coming from fresh water not near any drains. We also drove around town checking other hydrants and water sources on a few apartment buildings and I got similar readings on all of them. The water district did not seem concerned at all though, and said they weren’t available to look at it since it was a weekend and they could come out sometime this week. This has me wondering if methane is normally found in tap water? The water source is from a basin, which is fed by a major aqueduct that passes nearby, there are no underground wells or storage tanks involved. Ive done a little research and found that underground storage locations can occasionally has methane present from time to time, but I would like to hear some other thoughts from folks here. Thank You
Hello everyone, I live in a rural house in Portugal and had my well water tested. While a few results are still coming in, I would appreciate your comments on the following (translated from Portuguese, not sure if units are correct) :
Total coliforms N/100mL 26
Fecal enterococci ufc/100mL 4
Escherichia coli N/100mL 0
My first thought was to blame the old septic tank, which is ~40m/140ft away on a slight elevation from the well head. The septic tank has never been emptied before according to the previous owner. Therefor, I assume, it must be leaking.
Having done further research, it seems that a contamination from a septic tank would show a higher level of Escherichia coli, which is not the case here.
I've also inspected the well head. Found some tiny cracks in the masonry, which allowed some vegetation to creep in as well as rust underneath the lid, but the chamber appears fairly dry and the well pipe sits way above the surface (attached).
We stopped using the water for drinking / to brush the teeth. But still use untreated water for shower, washing vegetables and the dishes.
Would appreciate your thoughts on the following questions:
Thanks for your help.
I was looking at the water quality report of a spring water brand of water that shows they do microfiltration along with sanitizing the water. The purified water also does microfiltration along with sanitizing the water. The biggest difference is the purified water also adds their own minerals after reverse osmosis. Strictly speaking, are the two waters about the same in regard to how clean they are or does the reverse osmosis really make a difference? I have googled online a lot and can’t find a clear consensus, I understand what each process entails. Thanks so much for any added insight you can provide.