Water

As much as we would like to believe that our water is the purest thing in life, we are slowly coming to the realization that it is not. Microbial Earth Farms deals with this problem daily as we try to grow microbes for our products. We personally face it in our households as we try to live harmoniously with our friends at the city water utility. However, while the priorities of the city water utility certainly include the quality of our water, the use of chloramines and other additives such as chorine and flouride are not added to help us achieve better soil health.  The burden falls on us to take the city's treated water supply and make it into something we want and can use in our soils. That is why we have created this page on water quality and the products we believe you can use responsibly to achieve the goal of excellent water quality. Thus, we have teamed up with "Friends of Water", a California based family operated/owned business,  to supply you with products chosen at the grass roots level to protect your interests.

The most popular units are listed directly below.  If you are looking for something more specific, or options, please consider our advice on how to navigate the choices of systems.

Note:  Prices do not include installation or shipping.  Please consult or contract a plumber to prevent air leaks, bubling noises etc.  We are not responsible for faulty or problematic installation.

 

In order to navigate the choices of systems, we can provide you with the following guidance:

1.  The housing for a water filtration system can go above the countertop or below the countertop.  The undercounter models come with a seperate tap/dispenser that you can install above the countertop.  The countertop models come in white, but also have a chrome version that costs about $70 more.  Countertop units have a spout attached to the side of the cannisters, and a diverter which dispenses filtered water from the top of your regular faucet.

We personally have installed an under the counter model and inserted it into our cold water flow, so that all cold water used at our sink is filtered.  We have a marble countertop and were not enthusiastic about our options for mounting the seperate tap/dispenser.  This means we may have to replace the cartridges sooner (i.e. 9 months vs 12 months - regular replacement time frame for a family of 4 people).

2.  How many things do you  want to filter?  (see the next item for the available cartridges) Units come in either 2 filter or 3 filter system capacity.  We also hope ot offer whole house filter systems in the near future, but the expense is usually 4-8x the undercounter or countertop models.

3.  The available filters are (prices are for replacement filters): 

 

Flouride

The American Dental Association, in November 2006, announced that the ingestion of fluoride is too dangerous for babies. They have notified their members of this, but we are not aware of any effort to notify the public. You can read more about that and other risks of drinking fluoride, including that it is carcinogenic, at our Fluoride Dangers page.

Fluoride is easy enough to remove if you use enough of the right filter media. It is part of a metallic compound in our water, and it takes the opposite attraction of a metallic substance to remove it. Every metal has a charge, either positive or negative, and each can be either strong or weak. The right combination happens with activated alumina, which is in one of the canisters in our fluoride-removing two-canister water filters. Through the attraction of the metals, up to 99% is normally removed (rated at 2400 ppm).  

Activated alumina is not the material we know as aluminum.  It is aluminum oxide, the same natural substance as sapphire and rubies, but without the impurities that give the gems their color.  Aluminum is a more highly-processed man-made material fabricated in part by the addition of fluoride!  Activated alumina is a resin with a very high surface-area-to-weight ratio, with a lot of tunnel-like pores that run all through it. This means that there is a lot of surface area against which the water interacts, thereby removing fluoride.  Should there be any amount of leaching of materials from the first canister, the filter media in the second canister removes it.  Customers who have tested these filters in their homes have reported 0 fluoride when new, and 0 fluoride after 6 & 7 months of use.  (We're more impressed by tests of filters in homes than in labs.) View a research study report on the effectiveness of Activated Alumina.  The frequently repeated statement that only reverse osmosis removes fluoride is false.   See this page:  Reverse Osmosis.

This page describes the fluoride water filters offered by friendsofwater.com  There are many pages within our site with additional information on the need for water filters and why the filters we sell are recommended.  We have many water filters that remove fluoride, including combined with other types of filtration to remove the contaminants you want filtered.
To go straight to fluoride water filters in our store: fluoride water filters.

 

Chloramines

In recent times a growing number of municipalities are adding ammonia to the water supply.  They are doing this for two reasons.  One is in recognition of some scientific study results that suggest chlorine is carcinogenic.  The EPA has told water suppliers to reduce the amount of triholomethanes (chlorination byproducts) in the water supply, but they did not mandate the use of chloramines.  

The other reason is that adding ammonia changes the chemistry of chlorine so that it continues to serve as a disinfectant, but in its new form lasts much longer.  The new chemical is called chloramine.  By definition, chloramines are harder to remove than chlorine.

Research published in 2007 by Dr. Michael Plewa indicated that the disinfection byproducts (DBPs) created from the use of chloramine are much more toxic than the DBPs of chlorine. These new nitrogen-containing DBPs are currently not regulated by the EPA.  As far as we can determine, there still have been no scientific studies done to determine the risks to epidermis, respiratory, digestive or epidemiologic systems.  There also seem to be no allergy tests for chloramine.  Yet, this chemical is being formed in the water supply of people all over the country.

There are many reports of health concerns from chloramines.   It is suggested that anyone with chemical sensitivities will react badly to chloramines.  There have not been any EPA studies to officially determine whether chloramine will adversely effect individual health.  But those individuals with extreme rashes and breathing problems know the answer without a study.  The EPA says that ther are no dermal or inhalant studies on chloramine used in drinking water, and that there are inadequate cancer studies on animals or humans.

As a young man, the Big Splash at friendsofwater.com worked in the Dermatology Department of Mass General Hospital in Boston.  One thing he learned was that you really must study something for years in clinical settings before you can make definitive statements about health effects.  But over those years, that doesn't mean that harm isn't being done!  You have to take responsibility for your own health.

Another concern is that the use of chloramines instead of chlorine can increase the amount of lead in the water, particularly when the treated water runs through older lead pipes.

Health problems directly experienced by many people from exposure to chloramines include:

Extremely severe skin rashes; Dry skin; Scaling skin; Erupting, oozing skin; Skin described as having chemical burns; Skin outbreak 'like hives' ; Swollen ears; Extreme fatigue; Hacking coughs; Sneezing; Nasal congestion; Itchy eyes; Burning eyes; Swollen eyes; Raspy throat; Peeling fingernails; Stomach aches; Yeast infection; Ammonia toxicity from consumption, especially for those with liver, kidney or urea cycle diseases

People who keep a fish aquarium know that they have to get the chloramine out - or the fish die.

Many many people have reported that stopping exposure to chloramines led to dramatic improvement in health conditions within days.   Kdf, in all our canister, whole house and shower and bath filters, reduces chloramines, kdf 85 takes out chloramines. 

Granulated carbon has long been known to remove organic byproducts, catalytic carbon has been shown to be more effective on chloramines, so that is used in our kitchen and whole house filters. 

Like chlorine, chloramine is of concern while showering and bathing.  Many report health issues from bathing or showering in water with chloramine.  We are delighted that we now have both shower and bath filters (available upon request - Please call 512-870-8062) that greatly reduce chloramines.  They remove a significant portion of chloramine.  They take out the majority, but we can't state specific percentage for these new filters.