The Case For Conservation
 Bottled Water and Energy Consumption
No
matter what information you research, drinking water out of the
tap can be compromised, and bottled water is becoming an environmental
plague.
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Chlorine is a carcinogen.
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Heavy metals found in city drinking
supplies.
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Bottled water is tasty but costly.
The Pacific Institute says that the
entire energy costs of a bottle of water's lifecycle are equivalent
to filling up a quarter of each bottle with oil. Multiply that by
the 35 billion bottles of water consumed in America in 2006. Or
consider that making bottles to meet America's demand for bottled
water – 17 million barrels of oil were used in 2007. That's enough
fuel for one-million US cars a year. Then there is the 2.5 million
tons of carbon dioxide associated with the production, shipping
and waste of bottled water.
Salt and Potassium Water Conditioning
It’s official. While the established
soft water industry has fought tooth and nail to oppose AB1366,
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently announced his signing
legislation aimed at reducing California’s greenhouse gas emissions,
which included AB1366.
AB 1366 addresses excess salinity from
residential water softeners. The bills addresses surface and groundwater
supplies that are susceptible to salt contamination from conventional
water softening systems. The bill includes the Central Coast hydrologic
region.
The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports, Most
softeners waste water and cause recycling and sewage treatment issues.
The most environmentally damaging softeners are the type that use
salt and regenerate on a preset timer schedule. The amount of water
used for regeneration varies, but is roughly 75 gallons. Many systems
are set to regenerate too frequently.
The water softeners that regenerate
on a preset schedule were banned in the city of Scotts Valley in
the early 1990s, mainly to prevent overloading the wastewater recycling
system with sodium.
What About Reverse Osmosis?
Here’s what water expert Sam Beckett
writes:
Drinking water that has gone through
a process of reverse osmosis is not advisable, particularly if you
plan on drinking it for more than, say, a week long period. Your
normal drinking water contains many different dissolves compounds...,
nowhere in nature will you find pure water, and there is a reason
for this. Water, in its pure form, is highly reactive. Left open
to the environment it will quickly absorb carbon dioxide from the
air and the water will be quite acidic - not advisable if you plan
on drinking it. In addition to that, pure water (as in water treated
with reverse osmosis) will also draw minerals from the body in order
to replace those that have been removed from it in the reverse osmosis
process. This will include calcium from the bones and teeth, and
potassium which is vital for heart function. Such mineral loss,
over a long period of time, is likely to lead to arthritis, osteoporosis,
hypothyroidism, coronary heart disease and so on.
Add these facts to your favorite
trivia games:
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The average adult consumes about
10,600 gallons of water over a lifetime.
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The EPA estimates 9.7 billion
pounds of industrial wastes are yearly released into US
waters.
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An EPA survey discovered the
carcinogen nitrate in more than half of the drinking-water
wells tested across the country.
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In 38 states, 74 different pesticides
were found in drinking wells.
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Four out of every five of the
nation's 1000 worst hazardous waste dumps leak toxins into
the ground water.
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Of the 2.5 million underground
gasoline storage tanks, as many as 25% leak gas into local
ground water, says the EPA.
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The 30-million acres of lawn
in the US receive 2.5 times more pesticides than farm crops.
These pesticides eventually end up in local water supplies.
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THMs or trihalomethanes are
a byproduct of chlorine reaction with organic material in
water, like leaves and decaying vegetation. THMs are suspected
causes of some birth defects and certain kinds of cancer
if consumed regularly in drinking water.
There Are Alternatives
Mermaid Pure™ water systems by Riptide
Alchemy now provides a whole house system with mixed media filtration
capabilities that remove chlorine and other chemical contaminants
and heavy metals from all the water in your home. Our mixed media system allows us to
condition water without relying on excess salt or potassium. All water systems
from Riptide Alchemy, LLC expressly follow all government and water
quality guidelines in the manufacturing and delivery of the highest
quality product to the consumer.
For more information about water and our environment, please
visit our blogs:
www.watersynergy.wordpress.com
www.Neptune911.wordpress.com
www.poolandspamaster.wordpress.com
Produced by Riptide Alchemy, LLC — We Work With the Environment
to Bring You Healthy Living
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