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US water contains more ‘forever chemicals’ than EPA tests show

theguardian.com

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Re: US water contains more ‘forever chemicals’ than EPA tests show

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you trust those tests made by other people to be accurate? Or the science of it being a problem (or not) to be accurate? The flaw in your reasoning is that you implicitly assume trust anywhere

This isn't a binary between complete blind trust and "living in the woods", my point is if you want your kids to have clean drinking water the best way to do that is test it yourself. If you trust the US government to provide it for you, you'll end up here crying about how they abused your trust for the ten thousandth time and be somehow, inexplicably, surprised.

Water quality is primarily the responsibility of states. They generally follow EPA standards, but there isn't some EPA guy visiting your local water plant, it's the state.

It's wild that people think water quality has gotten worse over time.

Re: US water contains more ‘forever chemicals’ than EPA tests show

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reverse osmosis water filter systems. They basically "squeeze" water through holes small enough for it but not other larger contaminants.

Looks like it also removes minerals from the water. Not sure if that’s a problem.

The good ones actually have an additional filter that remineralizes the water. Which is great, IMO because this also keeps the taste of the water consistent and you don’t have any funky flavors from the mineral content of your area.

Re: US water contains more ‘forever chemicals’ than EPA tests show

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reverse osmosis water filter systems. They basically "squeeze" water through holes small enough for it but not other larger contaminants.

Looks like it also removes minerals from the water. Not sure if that’s a problem.

There is some literature out there about pure RO water not being great for you.

My anecdote: I have been purchasing RO water from the local grocery store for quite some time because I dislike the taste of my tap water after softening. For a long while I drank the RO water as-is. When I started adding mineral drops to the water, I felt a lot better.

Re: US water contains more ‘forever chemicals’ than EPA tests show

#24
post #8

I installed a whole-house filter that was great when the EPA's recommended limit was 70 ppt, since mine drops it to < 10 ppt. Now that it's something on the order of ppq, I may have to add RO to at least the fridge, since that's where we get drinking water.

What is your whole-house filter setup look like?

Enpress Pioneer[0] with a pleated paper pre-filter. My influent water has - according to my water supplier - 1.8 ppt of PFOA/PFAS, so this drops it down to 90 ppq. Still sadly almost two orders of magnitude above the new recommended limit, but I'll take what I can get.

[0] https://www.enpress.com/site/project/pioneer-filtration/

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