water quality

[mega-schmega.livejournal.com]

I had a household water-filter installed in my house (population: two adults, one toddler, two cats).  I live near Tufts. The filter was a beautiful white color (like the housing). Here is what it looks like after 48hrs of normal life:


Here is what it looks like after a week of normal life:


So next time somebody tells you that Somerville water quality is some of the best in the country... well, you know...

Comments

[mattdm.livejournal.com]

Do you expect the water to be entirely free of minerals in order to be high quality? Looks like it's got some iron in it. I have no idea how much from the color, but is there any reason to suppose that it's significant?

[xuth.livejournal.com]

Two things:
Starting from white, adding any pigment will make a huge difference (think mixing paint. Or making chocolate milk, starting with a pint of milk you add a couple teaspoons of mostly sugar and a little bit of chocolate and you get a dark brown color. Note that you get diminishing returns by adding much more)

The 2 day vs 7 day shots look remarkably similar. This is because of the above and because when you depressurize your water line (for installing the water filter for instance) and then repressurize it you will release all kinds of crap in your water lines that was lightly attached to the pipe walls. Whenever you do this you typically have to run the tap for a minute or so before the water is clear. Often times you'll have to open up your tap to clear the aerator of particulate matter (mostly iron/rust) because this can clog your faucet. I'm guessing that when you change your filter the next time this won't happen because you can probably just change the filter without depressurizing significant portions of the water line.

This really is just normal.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

You are doing science wrong.

[aroraborealis.livejournal.com]

Marry me!

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

Somerville can have okay water and crappy, old pipes, FWIW.

[spatch]

We've secretly replaced mega_schmega's water filter with a Coke Slurpee. Let's see what happens!

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

MMMM COKE SLURPEE

I could totally go for that right now

(I'd mix a little cherry in).

[whaler.livejournal.com]

Hah that's exactly what it looks like.

[crschmidt.livejournal.com]

I loled.

[mrboboto.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of those people who buy the foot pads that change color when exposed to sweat, then try to tell me how many "toxins" were released. "BUT LOOK AT HOW DIRTY IT IS!"

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Or the "toxin-purging" footbath that made its own sludge. MMM MMM MMM!

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

http://www.mwra.com/04water/html/qual4concerns.htm#yellowish

[xuth.livejournal.com]

I think the next section on the page (rusty water) is a bit more relevent. Not that they aren't mostly the same thing, just in different quantities of iron/rust. What's in the filter was caused by the very localized "change in water flow" when the filter was installed.

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

Am I the only one who thinks those two pictures look the same?

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

Nope.

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

Hmm. This is going to sound like an odd comparison, but I know that the oil and oil filter in a new motorcycle should be replaced at the 25-400 mile mark (depending on the manufacturer and the person telling you this ;P) because things shift around and bits of excess metal come off and such as you run an engine that's never been run before, so you want to get that new-engine crud out of the system. I'm guessing this is a similar principle in action - the installation of the filtration system loosen up gunk in your house pipes and that crud got stuck in the filter (as it should ;). Does the manual suggest changing the first filter in a much shorter interval than later filter changes?

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Very different, apples and oranges, in fact.

Presumably this house, and its water system, have been in existence for a while.

"New house crud" should already be out of there, the filter system wouldn't loosen anything up, it's just stopping what was always there, as the water system isn't a mostly closed loop like an engine is.

[http://users.livejournal.com/deviant_/]

So next time somebody tells you that Somerville water quality is some of the best in the country... well, you know...

You've really mastered the false dichotomy here. Just because it's got some particulate matter in it doesn't mean it isn't "some of the best in the country".

[mega-schmega.livejournal.com]

"the best water in the country" to me would mean either:
- the clearest, cleanest, tastiest drinking water comes out of the faucet
OR
- every time I open the faucet anywhere in the city with "the best water in the country" I am given head.

thought I'd clarify.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Back when I moved to Somerville, my household installed a faucet-mounted filter in the kitchen sink. It worked great for about 2 weeks, after which only a trickle of water emerged no matter what. We replaced the filter a couple of times and got the same results. Finally, we called the manufacturer to ask WTF, and they asked us where we lived. When we said Somerville, they said, "Ohhhhhhhh. Yeah. We've heard this before. Use the pitcher filters instead."

The water quality is fine, and the high concentration of particulate matter is just a feature of the water here. But hey, that's what your house filter is for. It's doing its job. :-}

[ron_newman]

Brita?

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

dude, when i was younger i'd stay with relatives in pennsylvania for our annual family reunion and you know what the saying was there?

if it's brown, drink it down, if it's black, send it back.

the fact that i can drink the tap water from my friends' homes that live in somerville, and it's clear, well, that's a nice thing :)

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

This--where I grew up, the water was often clay red for days after a storm.

[masswich.livejournal.com]

Interesting discussions. I have had my water tested in 2 Somerville locations (its about $75 to have the test done, well worth it if you have kids and plan to stay put for a while, and want to know how important filtering is.)

What I found is that the pipes leading into the house seem to have a much larger impact than the water that comes to the pipes. We didn't have it tested for everything under the sun, but lead, iron, etc. were higher when you first turn the water on in the morning than when you let it run. That means its the house's pipes that give things off, not the MWRA water.

Anyway, the levels of everything we tested for were all fairly low, at least in the two houses I tested. As a result, I still filter for taste but I'm not that worried about contamination.

All this talk about Slurpees is making me thirsty, tho.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

what did they test for, and who was it?

I'm thinking about getting my water tested (both pre and post filter) for various things like dissolved minerals and pH.

[artguychris.livejournal.com]

I've had one of these filters for a few years. When I first got it I installed one of the very fine (15 micron?) filters and it was fine for months. At some point I found I had to switch to the coarser filters to keep them from clogging up every couple of weeks. I've tried going back, but the fine ones still clog up quick.

I ended up keeping the coarse filter on the main coming into the house and a fine one on the supply to my kitchen faucet which accounts for pretty much all the water I drink or use to cook.

To everyone saying the iron was released when the filter was installed, mine always looks like this.

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

I grew up in the poconos. The water had such high mineral content that if you filled the bathtub with water, within a minute it would form a mineral shell which would crackle when you tried to get in. It was also mildly sulfurous, nobody who visited us would drink the water because of its rotten egg scent. Despite all this we had it tested several times and it was perfectly safe.

Just because water has something in it that can be filtered out doesn't mean it's in any way unsafe. Water filters are made not only to keep you healthy, but also to make the water taste clean, which often involves removing stuff that doesn't need to be removed, or which might even be mildly beneficial to you if left in.

Of all the places I've lived or traveled, Somerville has some of the best tap water I've encountered.

Man, wouldn't you get kidney stones

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

pretty fast drinking that kind of water?

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

I have to say, air pollution from the McGrath and whatever particulate sources are around are probably a far worse health issue than anything in the water, provided there aren't significant levels of lead.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

So you've proved what, exactly, about the relative quality of Somerville water?

Yeah, Somerville water has iron in it. It comes from Central Massachusetts, where the water is incredibly iron-rich--when I was a kid growing up next to the Quabbin Reservoir (where Somerville water comes from), most of my classmates who had well water had to boil it before drinking it because it was visibly brown with iron.

Add iron-rich water to old iron city piping, and you get water with iron in it.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

so you boiled the iron out? i must have been sick that day in chemistry class :D

PSA

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

we've replaced the helpful, friendly davis_square community that most posters expect with snark beasts, crazed weasels, and cranky trolls. let's see if anyone notices!

Re: PSA

[diatomacearth.livejournal.com]

This happened quite some time ago, so I think the answer is, "no."

Are you sure there was no work

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

done on the pipes in your neighborhood? The water was that color for a while when they were working on Somerville Ave, last year.