Rainwater Collection

Pity It's No Longer Safe

This is glad and sad news all at once. And indicates how quickly situations change. The Western Sydney University (WSU) team that developed what seems to be a pretty good, automated, multi-stage filter and disinfection system that would have raised the treated water that came through up the water safety pyramid to level with or better than mains water. 

SIDE NOTE: It's sad that the water safety pyramid in that article is not quite right any more.

Thanks to PFAS, rainwater is further down the pyramid now and probably worse than groundwater.

Now, though, it's been shown that there are PFAS compounds in rainwater - everywhere in the world. And PFAS probably wouldn't be filtered out by that setup because they need activated carbon or ionic filtering to remove. 

This is me, standing in PFAS in our front yard after
a few days of heavy rain. Not to worry, hey?

Yep, even that lake that appears in the yard is these days (apparently) contaminated with PFAS compounds. Yep, those are very clumsy cheap-ass wellies so the water's at least 100mm deep there. And yep, my vegetables grow in that. 

But that brings me to the point - almost ALL our mains water is sourced from dams around major cities. And all those dams are filled from rivers and streams and they in turn get filled from - . . . .  rain . . .

Given that the average city needs megalitres of water, the filters (charcoal or ionic) to remove the compounds would necessarily have to be very large, and have you seen any huge filters around your city water supply? 

So probably the mains water supply isn't entirely innocent of PFAS, and the water supply from the WSU filters will probably be about the same. And the way o to deal with PFAS is to filter them out using a charcoal filter jug or inline filter. 

Thoughts.

So I guess my advice to you is get a charcoal filter for your drinking and cooking water at least. PFAS has been linked to reproductive issues - and you don't have to be actively reproducing to have issues with your reproductives . . . 

Anyone living rural and / or off-grid with rainwater take note of the UV sterilisation stage of the WSU filter setup. Bacteria growing in rainwater tanks cause a multitude of health issues. Look up how to make sand and charcoal column filters for at least your drinking water, dedicate a solar panel to a UV irradiator, and you'll have water at the mains water supply end of the pyramidor even above that.

This Is The End

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