Water is essential for every life on earth, however, not all water is created equal. Contaminated water can lead to serious health issues, yet it often goes unnoticed until it becomes a major problem.
Poor water quality is a major concern for many homeowners worldwide. As such, it’s important to identify polluted water sources and take measures to remedy them. One way to address impurities is by using water filtration and treatment systems. These systems are designed to maintain the water’s taste and odor by removing contaminants from the water supply. The type of system that needs to be used will depend on the particular source of contamination present in each location.
To help protect yourself and your family, we will teach you the telling signs that your water is of poor quality, what causes its quality to decline, its adverse effects to your health, and how you can identify if your water is contaminated.
The Common Signs of Poor Water Quality
Keeping a steady production of safe drinking water is critical for your family’s health. Here are the signs you need to watch out for with your home’s water system to prevent any harmful health issues:
High Turbidity
The first obvious sign of poor water quality is its high turbidity, or cloudiness. If the water appears muddy, murky, or cloudy, it’s a clear indication that pollutants or other solid particles are present in it that can be dangerous for human consumption. Murky water almost always has an unpleasant odor, indicating possible contamination from algae or other organic sources.
Taste and Odor Changes
Taste and odor changes are among the most common physical signs of poor water quality. Water contaminated with pollutants can have a distinctly different taste or smell, making it less desirable to drink. This is why it’s important to pay attention to changes in the taste or smell of your water to ensure that it’s safe for drinking.
Unusual Mineral Content
Unusual mineral content in water can be an indicator of poor water quality. Minerals like iron, lead, and magnesium can naturally occur in some water sources. They are harmless in most cases, but if the levels get too high, they can cause health problems.
Presence of Pathogens
Microorganisms including bacteria, viruses, amoeba, protozoa, and other pathogens can harm humans and animals if they come in contact with the skin or are ingested via contaminated water. Sometimes visual inspection may not be enough to determine the presence of disease-causing organisms in water.
High Levels of Chlorine
Chlorine is a common chemical used to treat and disinfect drinking water, but it’s important to know how much of it is present in the water. Too much chlorine can cause health problems and make the water taste or smell unpleasant.
Low pH Levels
A pH below 7 is considered acidic, which can be detrimental to human health as well as aquatic life. Acidic water can also cause pipes to corrode, causing possible leakage in a home’s plumbing system. The acidity of the water can be increased by various sources, including naturally occurring organic acids, industrial processes, agricultural runoff, and sewage contamination.
Causes of Poor Water Quality
Polluted water is a common problem in many parts of the world. It can cause health risks and environmental damage, so it’s important to understand the cause. There are several causes of poor water quality, ranging from natural to human-related sources.
Naturally-occurring causes of unsafe water include pollutants like sediment, algae growth due to increased nutrients, and naturally occurring chemicals such as arsenic or lead. All these elements can be found in both surface and groundwater sources.
Man-made pollution also contributes significantly to the contamination of water. Such pollutants include agricultural runoff, discharge from factories and industries, urban stormwater runoff, and landfills that leach contaminants into nearby waterways.
In the United States, most tap water meets safety standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but many contaminants can make their way into public drinking supplies and private wells. If left unchecked, these contaminants can cause discoloration, bad smells, unusual tastes, and serious health risks such as gastrointestinal illnesses like diarrhea, and even cancer. In some cases, these contaminants can also cause long-term damage to ecosystems and marine life.
Health Effects of Poor Water Quality
Good, quality water is essential for good health; conversely, impure water can have the opposite effects. Awareness of the health effects of contaminated water is paramount in taking steps to prevent them. In this section, we discuss some of the adverse effects of consuming or soaking oneself in water with poor quality.
Firstly, drinking impure water can lead to gastrointestinal illnesses like diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and skin infections like rashes or boils. Even common contaminants in water can have subtle effects on human health over time, such as cognitive or developmental delays in children.
Exposure to contaminated water could even result in serious chronic diseases such as cancer or liver failure. The best way to avoid these risks is by ensuring that the water you drink or use for washing is clean and free from impurities. This means having a reliable source of treated and filtered water through public systems or an appropriate home water filtration system.
Regularly testing your water supply will help you identify potential problems before they become serious health hazards. Taking this step will ensure that your drinking water remains safe for you and your family to consume without having to fear any negative health effects.
Identifying Contaminants In Water
Various pollutants can contaminate your water supply. It could be industrial or agricultural runoff, sewage overflow, or naturally-occurring minerals. It’s important to recognize the signs of poor water quality to take proper remediation measures. When it comes to ensuring the quality and safety of your water for use or consumption, checking it for contaminants is the first and most crucial step.
One way homeowners can check their water supply at home is with the use of water testing kits. Some of these kits can identify if there are changes in the water’s taste or smell, coloration, temperature, or pH level, or if there is presence of solid contaminants that could indicate a more serious issue. However, the test results these kits produce are not definitive, and are preliminary at best. It is recommended that you have your water tested by an EPA-Certified laboratory to identify specific types of contaminants, such as heavy metals or microorganisms.
You can also check the Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) on your annual bill from your local water supplier to see if you have safe drinking water. But while the EPA requires local water utilities to test their systems for over 90 contaminants and release CCRs annually, some contaminants manage to slip through these tests, so it’s up to you to do your due diligence in keeping you and your family safe.
Conclusion
Water quality is something that many households, businesses, and public facilities should be majorly concerned about. Contaminated water can cause several health issues, ranging from mild skin irritation to serious illnesses such as gastrointestinal problems. Awareness of the signs of poor water quality is the first and foremost way to prevent these undesirable events and take steps to improve them.
The most reliable way to improve the quality of your water is through filtration and treatment systems. If you’re worried that you may have unhealthy water in your home, please contact us at Hansen’s Plumbing. We are a reliable plumbing company in Ventura, California providing water treatment services since 1987. You can rely on us to help you with your water quality woes.
