Mr. McKinley’s Quetico question about the drinking water quality kind of got me interested in drinking water quality. I never gone to Quetico but based on Mr. Draski’s advise, I would probably drink the water there. If water looks clean, I would drink it. I cam across this article about the need to increase water purification, and it made me realize that just because water looks clean, it may not actually be clean.
According to this article, most tap wate and well water is not safe in the United States anymore due to pollution. According to the article at www.freedrinkingwater.com/water-purification-need.htm:
We have reached to a point that, all sources of our drinking water, including municipal water systems, wells, lakes, rivers, and even glaciers, contain some level of contamination. Contaminants range from naturally-occurring minerals to man-made chemicals and by-products. While many contaminants are found at levels not enough not to cause immediate discomforts or sicknesses , it is proven that even low-level exposure to many common contaminants will, over time, cause severe illness including liver damage, cancer, and other serious ailments. Even the chemicals commonly used to treat municipal water supplies such as chlorine and fluoride are toxic and are known to have significant adverse effects on the human body.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Drinking_water.jpg
After reading that I wondered how water could become so polluted. Another article on the same site answered that question. Water can be polluted by materials such as silt and dirt that enter the water as agricultural runoff. There is also always the possibilty of shallow sources of water being infected by human and animal wastes. But there are other ways that water can pollute water. When water vapor is in the atmoshere, it acts similar to distilled water. It does not really have any impurities when it stays aloft. But when water vapor comes into contact with the earth, it combines with nitrogen, air-carbon dioxide, and oxgen. The article provided the chemical reaction for that :
H20 + CO2 –> H2C03
Water dissolves and collects Carbon Dioxide to produce Carbonic Acid
WHen this water reaches the earth, it has a slighlty acidic quality. This water can pick up more additional carbon dioxide from decaying plant matter. According to the article:
If, however, it has the opportunity to seep into the soil and pass through a limestone stratum, the acid condition due to the carbon dioxide will be neutralized. At the same time, the water will get a large amount of mineral content. Chemically this can be diagrammed:
H2CO3 + CaCO3 –> Ca(HC03)2
Carbonic Acid reacts with Insoluble Calcium Carbonate to produce Soluble Calcium Bicarbonate The first article that I found also mentioned about the quality of bottled water versus the quality of tap water. I always drink bottled water and do not really see a problem with it, I assume since it is bottled, it must be safe. But apparently, that is not true. The article says “In fact, about a quarter of all bottled water is actually bottled tap water, according to government and industry estimates (some estimates go as high as 40 percent).” WHen I heard this, I was really surpirsed. There are two bills waiting approval in Sacramento, California now which would raise the standards of water bottle manufacurers. Ellen Corbett, an assemblywoman authored one of the bills, she said “People tout bottled water as this pure substance that’s trickling from clear mountain springs when, in fact, that may not be the case…When I pick up bottled water, I want to know it truly is something that’s good for me and better for me than drinking something.”
Bottled water is a huge industry, a 6 billion dollar industry. Almost 70% of all Californians drink bottled watter. It is expected to surpass milk, coffee, and beer and be the second most popular drinking beverage behind soft drinks. Since bottled water is food product it is expected to pass the FDA’s approval where as tap water has to pass water quality standards. Randy Kanouse, another California lobbyist said, “Of the hundreds of contaminants state and federal regulators measure, bottled water is subject to a higher standard for only two.”
The new laws proposed in California would require that bottling plants are sujuect to annual inspections and that companies reoprt the level of contaminents of their product including lead, and other contaminents. I thought that this was very interesting, and I guess that just because water comes in a bottle, it is not safer than water from the tap.
Sources:
http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/water-bottled-unsafe-drinking.htm
http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/water-purification-need.htm
http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/water-education2/10-summary-water-quality-environment.htm
Carbon dioxide, calcium carbonate, and calcium bicarbonate are completely safe when dissolved into ground water.
I’d be careful about Quetico water, regardless of Mr. Draski’s views. Not everyone who visits Q. is safe about where they “go”. Human waste has been found on trails and near lakes. Once a water supply has been contaminated, it’s not safe. Pathogenic bacteria and protozoans can continue to thrive long after the poo is gone.
Q.’s one redeeming factor is that the lakes are very deep and very cold. The pathogens have a hard time of surviving and there is so much water, that the pathogens are dilute enough that a human’s immune system can handle them.