BASIC TYPES OF WATER DEFINED

In general, water for drinking and cooking should be wholesome. It should be both potable and palatable. It must be bacteriologically and chemically safe for drinking and be good tasting. It should be clear, colorless, and have no unpleasant taste or odor.

In our present-day world, we need at least three basic types of water of somewhat different quality, depending on the requirements of each use:

1. Utility Water. Water which is suitable for use in sanitation and lawn sprinkling; adequate in quantity, bacteriologically safe, but not necessarily treated to the highest quality.


2. Softened Water. Water which is optimum for bathing, shampooing, personal grooming, laundering and dishwashing. Since many of these uses demand hot water, fully softened water produces better results with minimum soap and detergent usage, and, in addition, provides conservation of energy required for water heating.


3. Drinking Water. Water to be used for drinking and cooking must be of high quality. It must meet or exceed the bacteriological and chemical requirements of both the EPA Interim Primary and Secondary Drinking Water Regulations. Since water used for drinking and cooking amounts to only about 1/2 of 1% of the total water supplied by a community, this amounts to 0.875 gallons per person per day of the 175 gallons per person per day furnished by the community. The remaining amount (over 174 gallons per person per day) is used for a variety of purposes such as sprinkling lawns and irrigation, flushing toilets, fighting fires, cleaning streets, as well as utility commercial and industrial uses within the community.


4. Of course, many commercial establishments (laundries, beauty salons, car washes, etc.), industries (for rinsing and specific processes), and institutions (hospitals, for example for laboratory use, hemodialysis, etc.) will want to provide extremely high quality water of different types for specific applications at the point of use.

Today, more than ever before, water is what we make it - not only for community water supplies, but also for individual water supplies. Point-of-use water treatment today is an extremely viable and readily available means by which water of extremely high quality can be provided. Moreover, since treatment takes place just before the water is used, point-of-use water treatment also provides distinct and unique advantages in that only the amount of water needed for each specific purpose or application is treated to the desired quality and also that there is virtually no opportunity for recontamination of the water from the distribution system after treatment.

TOTAL DISSOLVED SOLIDS, HYDROGEN SULFIDE, FLUORIDES, AND OTHER WATER IMPURITIES