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Arlington tap water found cleanest in the country

Written by John Harden, The Shorthorn senior staff

Thursday, 28 January 2010 07:32 PM

Arlington’s water department and other water supply agencies have partnered with a Colorado research group to discover ways to remove unwanted chemicals from drinking water.

The city partnered with Water Research Foundation to conduct a study to further enhance the treatment of drinking water in the city by removing inorganic contaminants, including personal care products and pharmaceuticals, said Julia Hunt, Arlington’s water utilities director.

The city will use the research findings to make decisions for future treatment procedures, she said.

In early November, Arlington’s tap water ranked best in the nation, according to a study conducted by Environmental Working Group.

The group conducted a five-year study to test tap water in 100 major cities in the U.S., including Fort Worth, Austin and Dallas — ranking No. 3, 7 and 12 respectively.

Accounting junior Joshua Sherrill drinks from the water fountain in the University Center Thursday night. (The Shorthorn: Aisha Butt)

“We were not aware of the rankings of the cities until the day before the working group publicized the data,” Hunt said. “The database includes five years of data from 45 states and Washington D.C.”

The percentage of pollutants observed in the water included pesticides, human waste and fertilizers. The group found 15 pollutants in Arlington’s drinking water compared to 300 different pollutants found throughout national tap water.

Arlington resident Eugene Boles usually buys his water from the local grocery store.

“I’m always reading about how tap water isn’t as clear as it looks,” he said. “I think I drink bottled water because it makes me feel safer about what I’m putting into my body.”

Boles said he found the results of the study surprising.

“I never thought Arlington would be ranked as number one,” he said. “Any steps taken to make the water better would probably convince me to start drinking from my tap.”

The data collected for the study was the largest of its kind, said Jane Houlihan, vice president for research for the environmental group.

Houlihan said it was necessary to look into the nation’s tap water closely because regulations are not as thorough as they should be.

The city’s recent partnership with Water Research Foundation will lead to better water treatment, Hunt said.

The city uses ozone purifiers as a primary disinfectant and biological filtration to remove contaminants from water. The biological filters are comprised of sand, gravel and granular activated carbon that allow growth of specific organisms to help remove organic contaminants.

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products found in tap water are difficult to remove because they don’t break down as easily as organic substances, said Ron LeBlanc, Water Research Foundation project manager.

The city is looking into reverse osmosis as an alternative technique, he said.

Reverse osmosis pushes pressurized water against a permeable membrane that contains microscopic pores, allowing only clean water to pass through.

Arlington continues to regularly test and develop ways to monitor its water in compliance with Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, Hunt said.
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Comments (1)

1 Cool..
Written by Valluri Vinodh Kumar, on 01-29-2010 22:31
Great news!

At least one fantastic piece of news regarding health and the environment coming from the Fast Food capital of the world!
Time for us to believe that every cloud has a silver lining.. and not just believe it, but start to live it too..

To explain my stand further: I wonder why everyone is spending thousands of precious dollars on packaged bottled water if Arlington has the best water in USA? Isn't it time to do away with all those snazzy, 'pure', 'mineral', 'flavored', and 'natural spring' water, which are actually extracted from the stressed ground water levels of Asia and Africa, packaged in BPA-leaching plastic bottles, and transported across continents using jet fuel, or worse coal? and stored in purely profit-centered corporate vending machines? Notwithstanding the fact that they are, of course, priced absurdly and have the highest carbon footprint per calorie of all consumer goods on the market.

Maybe tap water (at least in our city) is fit for human consumption, as it always should have been, everywhere in the world. Why not drink tap water, save money, energy and the planet's dwindling water resources? I think UT Arlington should bid goodbye to bottled water and drink filtered tap water.

...just something to think about as you drink...

Vin

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Last Updated ( Thursday, 28 January 2010 08:38 PM )

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