Got Diarrhea? Don't Blame Homewood's Water!

After a year of sitting in the dark about my water quality, it finally arrived: the 2010 Water Quality Report! For those of you without the time to get a masters degree in chemistry, hopefully this article helps. By flipping back and forth, and back and forth, (and back and forth) a few times, the tables are straight-forward, although they do seems to lend themselves to making you not want to decode them. The last sections even tell you a little about how much water Homewood has in tanks for daily use (5M gallons), how much we pump per day (2.5M gallons) and how much a gallon of Homewood water weighs (8.34 lbs).

The great news is that there were no violations for the water that you and I drank last year! So keep on drinking, Homewood! (...water, that is.) And although there are some definitions of what the tests are looking for, nowhere does it mention what the stuff does to you if it's over the limit. This is probably done as a "public-please-don't-read-the-wrong-thing-and-go-crazy" move on the part of the Homewood Public Works, so I'm going to do it for you.

Let me reiterate, according to the 2010 Homewood Water Quality Report, the levels of these substances are below the goal levels and our water is safe.

Now on to the good stuff. Below is the list of substances that are tested for and the negative health effects on the human body. Also listed are things you can do, should levels get too high, or possible solutions if you are innovating ways for under-developed nations to gain better access to potable water... Just saying'.

Fecal Coliform: cramps to diarrhea (boil water for 1 minute before use)
E. Coli: cramps to diarrhea but also kidney failure in rare cases (boil water for 1 minute)

Copper: cramps to diarrhea (run water for 5-6 minutes in a home, longer in apartments)

Lead: cramps to diarrhea to death (worst case scenario, I suppose) (see treatment for copper; also avoid sanding paint in older homes, use a chemical stripper or simply paint over any potential lead-paint exposure risks)

Trihalomethanes: [with high concentrations and/or undiluted THM's] burning sensation, redness, blistering, adverse effects on the central nervous system, liver, kidneys and heart. Classified as a "probable carcinogen" by the US EPA (filtration)

Haloacetic acid: exposure during 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy may be linked to birth defects in newborns; also the endocrine system, Organ system toxicity, Cancer may be linked (filtration)

Chloramines: chloramine-induced hemolytic anemia in patients when dialysis water was not appropriately treated; otherwise, no ill-health effects (filtration)

Turbidity: no human health-effects found, it just looks gross (filtration)

Barium: gastrointestinal disturbances and muscular weakness (reverse osmosis filtration)

Nitrate/Nitrite: methemoglobinemia, or "blue baby syndrome"; long-term ingestion may increase the risk of certain types of cancer (do not boil water, it only concentrates the contaminant; use bottled water until the source can be eliminated)

Fluorine: weakened bones/teeth in adults (distillation or reverse osmosis)

Sodium: increased blood pressure which may lead to increased risk of heart disease, stroke and congestive heart failure (reverse osmosis filtration)

Sulfate: diarrhea in susceptible populations (ion-exchange water softeners)

Radium: depression of the immune system, anemia, cataracts, fractured teeth, increased incidence of bone, liver and breast cancer (ion-exchange water softeners, reverse osmosis)

alpha-particles (excluding Radium and Uranium): see Radium