Sewage Filtration And Water Treatment

There are many reasons why people decide to install a home drinking water purification system. Their water might taste odd, have a strange color or smell, or perhaps their water is what is called “hard water” (water that has high mineral content) which often causes problems with laundry.  Mostly water purifiers are installed at residences that have their own wells, if you’re connected to the city water line, the water usually has already been treated in a water treatment plant and if there’s something wrong with it, you should contact the water company or state department of health. Rusty pipes can also be the reason for your bad water and should be replaced instead of adding a water filter.

A good first step would be to get your water tested to find out what kind of purifier is required, because different kinds of purifiers remove different types of bacteria and minerals. You can take a water sample to a laboratory, either a private one or your county / state department of health. This is something you should always do regularly if you have your own well.

An activated carbon water filter

An activated carbon filter can remove many organic chemicals and pesticides, hydrogen sulfide, mercury and radon gas and is good for reducing taste, odor and color problems in water. Activated carbon filters usually have replaceable activated carbon cartridges and always require regular maintenance or bacteria will start to breed in the filter.

A reverse osmosis water filter system

Reverse osmosis systems, while being more expensive, can in addition remove calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, nitrate, boron, potassium, sulfate, radium and salts.

Oxidizing greensand or zeolite filters require that you regularly regenerate the system by adding potassium which is dangerous if it gets into your eyes and gloves are required to protect your skin.

An ion exchange water filter

Ion exchange water filters work by running the water through small resin beads. It can remove barium and small amounts of iron and manganese . The resulting water includes added sodium, which might not be good for you if you have blood pressure issues or hypertension.

Chlorinating the water is also an option, but I’d advice against that, because if the system isn’t working properly, the water might in fact become poisonous. Likewise, killing bacteria using a UV filter is not very good either because there’s no way to know (without constantly testing the water) if the system is actually working.

Ozone water treatment is another quite expensive solution. When compared to chlorination, it’s better at killing bacteria and viruses. Ozone is formed by using electricity like in lightning strikes. The ozone gas is then forced through the water, oxidizing iron, manganese, sulfur and some other particles. These particles will then be removed by using a secondary filter. There are still some suspicions that byproducts from the ozonation process might cause cancer.

Interesting new water treatment technology that has been patented in the UK. According to the press release, the process would not produce practically any sludge at all.

BioShaft is a green innovative wastewater treatment technology based on Bio-Filtration utilizing biomass carriers. These plants are made using the BioShaft Turbo Reactor that is at the heart of the wastewater technology. The plants have many benefits over traditional wastewater treatment, including the virtual elimination of sludge and odors and requires significantly less land. It is patented in the UK and the patent is pending in the United States. To date there are more than 30 waste water treatment plants throughout the world using this technology.

“The unique BioShaft fixed film process virtually eliminates sludge. Bioshaft is a biological treatment process that uses thousands of special carriers designed to create a large surface area for biofilm growth. This enhances the wastewater treatment process while reducing the footprint of the plant. By collecting and reintroducing this biofilm in to the process again, it allows us to virtually eliminate sludge!”

[Press release]

WDEF News reports:

At least one public waterway in Monteagle was polluted Sunday when a primary treatment basin failed at the city’s waste-water treatment plant.

Almost a 100-thousand gallons of effluent went into Juanita Creek.

Monteagle has two wastewater treatment plants…and this was plant number consisting of an above-ground steel tank.

Monteagle has also begun chlorinating the bypass into Juanita Creek.

[Full article]

(Effluent usually means water pollution, like the output from a wastewater treatment plant or discharge from factories or other industrial sources. Effluent sump pumps, pump waste from toilets installed under the level of local sewer. When talking about waste water treatment plants, treated effluent is often referred to as “secondary effluent”. This semi-treated water is often used to to feed biofilters with bacteria. [Wikipedia])