Do You Know Your Neighbors?Friday, March 6, 2015 - by Water2DrinkThe March 5, 2015, issue of The Atlantic online magazine (theatlantic.com)
covers a consequential story about the Rice family outside of Asheville,
NC. Bob and Dot Rice bought a piece of
property in 1974, built a home there, raised children, and planned for the property
to be passed along to their two sons and their children. The home water source was a local spring a
few hundred yards behind the family cabin. According to the article, “after they moved in, the
Rices noticed the water coming out of the spring had a salty taste and smelled
musty.” They could smell a distinct #petroleum
smell coming from their well and spring, “especially when it rained. ‘I got
used to it,’ Terry Rice said. ‘We checked for bacteria. We didn’t check for
chemicals.’” In 1999, a family friend
discovered environmental contamination in the spring, along with barrels from a
long-closed factory that once bordered the property.
The contamination came from CTS Corporation, which operated a
factory plant that closed in 1986. The
company produced electronic components, and workers there used #TCE, a
colorless solvent with a sweet odor.
The article states, “Drinking or breathing high levels of TCE may cause
nervous system effects, liver and lung damage, abnormal heartbeat, coma, and
possibly death, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry website. The EPA investigation found that CTS employees
were disposing of TCE and other chemicals by pouring them down the drains and
letting the chemicals leach into the ground.” A year after closing the factory, the company
sold the property to developers who had the soil at the site tested, but never had
the groundwater sampled or tested. Adding
insult to injury, the EPA “had a chance to clean up the site years ago but
didn’t. A memo from 1991 shows that federal regulators knew pollution from the
former factory threatened the surrounding community’s water and air. But the
agency failed to do more testing or even warn residents of potential dangers.”
This type of contamination can be an environmental nightmare. A wide range of chemicals can contaminate our
water, land, or air, which impacts our environment but also our health. Some pollutants resist breakdown and can
accumulate in the #foodchain, being absorbed by fish or wildlife, and then
eaten by residents. Contamination can
also impact coastal areas, waterways, surface water sources, and groundwater. It can be years or decades before the
contamination is identified, and even longer for the sites to be cleaned and
the water source becomes healthy again, if ever.
To combat environmental contamination, water consumers and
home buyers should educate themselves on the surrounding areas. What businesses
or industries are or were nearby? Were there #chemicals used in that industry? Has
there been environmental testing in the area? Even if your water source is
municipal (provided by your city or county), there are many opportunities for
water contamination to occur between a water treatment plant and your
home.
We at Water2Drink.com believe you have the power to protect
yourself and your family by using a water filtration device such as a Multipure
Drinking Water System. The family of #Multipure Drinking Water Systems are NSF-tested
and certified to reduce TCE and dozens of other chemical and organic contaminants,
including arsenic, metals and cysts. Each Multipure filter Owner’s Manual comes
with a Performance Data Sheet that outlines exactly what contaminants the
filters are certified to reduce, and to what degree. Most contaminants are reduced
more than 99 percent! |
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