Water & Air – Filter Systems News

How far would you walk for a glass of clean drinking water? One mile? Two Miles? Did you know that in many countries, like parts of Africa for example, women and children have to walk approximately 3.7 miles to carry gallons of water back to their homes and villages? Generally speaking, women and children usually bear the burden of collecting water by walking to the nearest water source that is contaminated, because that particular water source is shared with livestock and other animals. Thus, consuming contaminated water is their only option.

Image Credit: charity:water

Water is inter-related with health. We take the ability and freedom to walk a few steps to our faucet and turn it on in order to get a glass of clean drinking water for granted. There are poor developing countries and communities who are challenged with being able to meet basic needs. When we refer to basic needs, it goes beyond what we need to drink or ingest for our daily survival. It includes the need for water to maintain a basic standard of hygiene that is sufficient to maintain health.

At W3, as we reflect on our children and loved ones each day, we think about how it would break our hearts to helplessly watch them suffer and die from simply drinking contaminated water. This could leave them susceptible and vulnerable to diseases such as viral hepatitis, cholera, typhoid, diarrhea and dysentery. When our global neighbors are suffering and dying from not having access to clean drinking water, it is a critical matter and our W3 Team just cannot sit here and do nothing.

We invite you to join us on our mission to Work and Walk for Water. There are many ways to contribute and participate in this humanitarian effort. To learn more about our W3 initiative and how you can get involved, check out our W3 – Work and Walk for Water website.

The small town of Bally, Pennsylvania boasts a growing population of about 1,100. And we may attribute part of their growth over the last seven years to bottled water.

As much as I hate to say it, bottled water has done this town some good. It’s the only water residents of Bally have been safely able to drink since 2003, due to groundwater contamination. According to the EPA, the Bally water system was contaminated with the industrial solvent 1, 4-dioxane, which has been labeled “a probable human carcinogen“. Officials disconnected the contaminated well from the water system, hooked up a new well about one mile away, and flushed the system to ensure the removal of any lingering contaminants. Seven years later, Bally residents are now able to safely drink water from the tap.

Did I mention, they’ve been drinking bottled water for seven years?

That’s a long time for a population of 1,000 people to have to wait for a safe drinking water supply. I can’t imagine how much plastic waste this small town has contributed to our landfills since 2003.

Residents of Bally were on a well-water system, but residents of larger cities with municipal water treatment plants are no stranger to the types of chemicals that have plagued this small town for nearly a decade. Municipal water treatment involves the use of chemicals (most of which are also carcinogenic) as disinfectants, and it’s quite common for agricultural and industrial pollutants to be present in the water supply. Though reducing 1,4-dioxane to “acceptable levels” requires advanced oxidation processes, many of the water filters we carry are able to significantly reduce other chemicals and volatile organic compounds. Whether your water supply comes from a well or a municipal system, a home water filter might be worth considering. I’m sure the population of Bally, PA will agree.

Would you poison the planet for $100,000?

According to a recent article, filmmaker Josh Fox faced this question when he received a $100,000 offer in exchange for the natural gas drilling rights to his property in the Delaware River Basin.  Instead of taking the money and keeping quiet, he decided to use his talents to make a film that exposes the harsh reality of America’s natural gas drilling campaign.  Touring 24 states across the country, Fox, in his Sundance award-winning documentary, GASLAND, reveals some horrific truths about how the natural gas industry is poisoning our water and air, causing chronic illnesses in residents near drilling areas, and contributing to a crisis that could affect millions more, long-term.  What does this crisis look like in real life?  Here’s what’s happening in several major cities:

• In Dimock, Pennsylvania, close to the New York City watershed, animals began losing their hair after the drilling started, most likely from the toxic water they ingested.

• In DISH, Texas, emissions from natural gas wells and pipelines measure way above the public health standard for cancer-causing benzene and the neurotoxin carbon disulfide.  In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the emissions are greater than the air pollution caused by all the cars and trucks combined.

• In Wyoming, a water well erupted with a geyser of natural gas for three days.

If that’s not enough to make you think twice, watch this video:

CAN YOU DO THIS WITH YOUR TAP WATER? from JOSHFOX on Vimeo.

Flammable tap water is not the most disturbing of Fox’s findings, however.  The drilling process, called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which leads to all of this contamination, was exempted in 2005 by the Bush-Cheney Energy Policy Act from United States environmental regulations, including the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Air Act.  What’s more, the fight has now moved to Congress, where lobbyists are trying to prevent legislation that would reverse the exemption, making chemicals used in the process subject to the Safe Drinking Water Act, once again.

I repeat: lobbyists are trying to PREVENT legislation that would reverse the exemption…

Pardon me while I try to make sense of this.  Instead of preventing accidents like the recent BP oil spill, our very own leaders are ignoring the problem while we scramble to find ways to clean up the mess?  – (i.e. Kevin Costner’s Oil Spill Machines; oil booms and mats made of pantyhose and hair)

Innocents like Fox, who accept a monetary offer in exchange for drilling rights must sign non-disclosure forms forcing them to keep quiet about their experience with natural gas drilling and preventing them from bringing any lawsuits.  Perhaps this is the reason why Fox refused the $100,000 offer.  After all, why would anyone want to put a price tag on his health and risk death in the process?  Besides, since the film won the Documentary Special Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, I’m sure Fox has gained a worthier source of income.

The  film makes its debut on Monday, June 21, at 9 p.m. ET/PT., exclusively on HBO.  Watch it.  Tell your friends.  And please do us all a favor, and share this post.

In the meantime, check out our list of some of our other favorite must-watch water movies.