Safe Water From Every Tap

Small communities violate federal requirements for safe drinking water as much as three times more often than cities. Yet these communities often cannot afford to improve their water service. Safe Water From Every Tap reviews the risks of violating drinking water standards and discusses options for improving water service in small communities. Included are detailed reviews of a wide range of technologies appropriate for treating drinking water in small communities. The book also presents a variety of institutional options for improving the management efficiency and financial stability of water systems.

Small communities violate federal requirements for safe drinking water as much as three times more often than cities. Yet these communities often cannot afford to improve their water service. Safe Water From Every Tap reviews the risks of violating drinking water standards and discusses options for improving water service in small communities. Included are detailed reviews of a wide range of technologies appropriate for treating drinking water in small communities. The book also presents a variety of institutional options for improving the management efficiency and financial stability of water systems.

The provision of safe drinking water has been an important factor in the improvement of the health status of U.S. communities since the turn of the last century. Nonetheless, outbreaks of waterborne disease and incidences of chemical contamination of drinking water continue to occur. Setting Priorities for Drinking Water Contaminants recommends a new process for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to use in deciding which potential drinking water contaminants should be regulated in public water supplies to provide the greatest protection against waterborne illnesses. The book covers chemical and microbiological contaminants and includes a historical review of past approaches to setting priorities for drinking water contaminants and other environmental pollutants. It emphasizes the need for expert judgment in this process and for a conservative approach that considers public health protection as the first priority.

An in-depth look at the changing approaches that environmentalists, governments, and the open market have taken to water through the lens of world history. When we turn on the tap or twist open a tall plastic bottle, we probably don’t give a second thought about where our drinking water comes from. But how it gets from the ground to the glass is far more convoluted than we might think. In this revised edition of Drinking Water, Duke University professor and environmental policy expert James Salzman shows how drinking water highlights the most pressing issues of our time. He adds eye-opening, contemporary examples about our relationship to and consumption of water, and a new chapter about the atrocities that occurred in Flint, Michigan. Provocative, insightful, and engaging, Drinking Water shows just how complex a simple glass of water can be. “A surprising, delightful, fact-filled book.” —Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel “Instead of buying your next twelve-pack of bottled water, buy this fascinating account of all the people who spent their lives making sure you’d have clean, safe drinking water every time you turned on the tap.” —Bill McKibben, author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet “Drinking Water effortlessly guides us through a fascinating world we never consider. Even for people who think they know water, there is a surprise on almost every page.” —Charles Fishman, bestselling author of The Big Thirst and The Wal-Mart Effect “Salzman puts a needed spotlight on an often overlooked but critical social, economic, and political resource.” —Publishers Weekly

More than 20 years ago, when our children were very small, I felt the need for better drinking water quality and I purchased a small counter top appliance that hooked up to the water tap. It didnt take long before I realized that this was just a bandaid and that something more powerful was needed and thus I embarked on a mission to educate myself about home drinking water filtration systems. This was pretty much in the days before I had a computer, so I looked at trade magazines and sent for every drinking water brochure I could find, read them all and compared for quality and price. This convinced me very quickly of the benefits and affordability of solid carbon block technology and I ended up with a company that took the water filtration business very seriously and in my opinion did produce and still produces

Today, 785 million people are living without access to safe water. Water-related illnesses are responsible for almost 1 million deaths each year. Clean water should be a basic human right, but far too few people have access to it. With this informative book, readers will study the global water crisis, how it reached its current state, and its impact on the environment and human lives. Real-life examples of the steps being taken to save Earth's water resources and improve the quality and availability of drinking water will inspire budding environmentalists to take action.

The best papers from the three-day conference on Safe Drinking Water from Source to Tap June 2009 in Maastricht are published in this book covering the themes of challenges of the water sector and adaptive strategies, treatment, distribution, risk assessment and risk management, sensors and monitoring, small scale systems, simulation, alternative water supply & sources, consumer involvement, and future drinking water. Worldwide, the water supply sector is facing tremendous challenges. Every new emerging contaminants and pathogens and aging infrastructures that are vulnerable for deliberate contamination pose a threat to the quality of water supplies. Shortage of good quality and readily treatable resources is increasing due to global warming, urbanisation and pollution from agriculture and industry. Regulators and consumers are becoming more demanding. Techneau - the largest European project on drinking water - addresses these challenges by developing adaptive supply system options and new and improved treatment and monitoring technologies. Future system options to be studied are flexible, small scale and multi-source supplies, utilising non conventional resources like brackish ground water, treated wastewater and urban groundwater.

Protecting and maintaining water distributions systems is crucial to ensuring high quality drinking water. Distribution systems-consisting of pipes, pumps, valves, storage tanks, reservoirs, meters, fittings, and other hydraulic appurtenances-carry drinking water from a centralized treatment plant or well supplies to consumers' taps. Spanning almost 1 million miles in the United States, distribution systems represent the vast majority of physical infrastructure for water supplies, and thus constitute the primary management challenge from both an operational and public health standpoint. Recent data on waterborne disease outbreaks suggest that distribution systems remain a source of contamination that has yet to be fully addressed. This report evaluates approaches for risk characterization and recent data, and it identifies a variety of strategies that could be considered to reduce the risks posed by water-quality deteriorating events in distribution systems. Particular attention is given to backflow events via cross connections, the potential for contamination of the distribution system during construction and repair activities, maintenance of storage facilities, and the role of premise plumbing in public health risk. The report also identifies advances in detection, monitoring and modeling, analytical methods, and research and development opportunities that will enable the water supply industry to further reduce risks associated with drinking water distribution systems.