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Pesticides and Drinking Water
What's in your water? What you find may surprise you.
Your community's Annual Water Report will most likely contain a long list of contaminants. In a sample report we reviewed there were three pages of contaminants, including these categories: Microbiological Contaminants, Radionuclides, Lead and Copper, Inorganic Contaminants, Synthetic Organic Contaminants, and Volatile Organic Contaminants.
The following is an excerpt from the Synthetic Organic Contaminants page:
You can see the sources of contamination that include banned termiticides, runoff from insecticides, discharge from chemical factories, and leaching of soil fumigants. While these contaminants are each determined to fall within "safe limits," what about the levels taken as a whole?
If you're interested in finding out what's in your water, see the Environmental Working Group's National Drinking Water Database. Earthworks also provides a helpful fact sheet on Understanding Your Water and Air Tests.
The Environmental Working Group also offers a helpful Water Filter Buying Guide.
Another option for clean water is a gravity-fed spring. These are more plentiful than you might expect. Visit FindASpring.com to utilize their helpful database.
In light of growing concerns over contaminants in our water supply, consider author and marine biologist Rachel Carson's perspective as stated in her book, Silent Spring:
