Do You Know Your Neighbors?

The 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!