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METAL POISONING FROM SOFT WATER SUPPLIES
How does soft town/Rain and bore water cause metals poisoning in water?
Copper poisoning
Soft water will, when it sits in copper pipes, literally dissolve the copper out of the pipes and leave a green or blue tinge on porcelain and white enamel and can be bitter in taste.
COPPER DETECTED BY TEST over 1ppm can be a problem with young children and long term with all of us. The Australian Drinking Water Safe Limit guidelines are 2ppm. I believe that it is set too high. Best results are 0 ppm.
Copper presence is a very common and widespread problem with soft water supplies and unsuspecting users getting sick from copper poisoning.
Some states and territories supply very soft water. They are all generally supplied by Reservoir water that is actually filled direct by rainfall, river systems and run off. This water supply has a low level of calcium and magnesium mineral base.
Understanding water
First the water user must understand that water is a living item with an active mineral base.
The mineral base comprises calcium and magnesium, hardness mineral salts.
Water balance
A water supply must be in balance with the hardness or it will misbehave. The water supply that is very low in mineral content will attack soft materials such as:
- Older plumbing styles which were typically galvanized. Soft water will dissolve the inner pipe wall metal and send the water quite brown. The water carried can be found to also contain elevated levels of zinc.
- Copper plumbing is a very soft metal and dissolves quite readily under aggressive water conditions. This will send porcelain blue or green and make the water taste quite bitter.
- Brass or alloy fittings can also be affected and will release metals into the water stream, mostly zinc.
An aggressive water supply will have a low hardness presence by test and a low pH
that is generally not above a pH of 7.2 and more typically as low as a pH of 6.5.
Aggressive conditions in water
Rainwater can calculate to quite an aggressive index. It will attack any soft metal including copper, brass, iron and galvanized metals.
Stopping the metals problem with Calcite Filter
This can be generally achieved by passing the water supply on demand use, through a calcite chip filled filter.
The water hardens up, the calcium level climbs, the alkalinity elevates, and the pH goes higher and the problem ceases.
There is no other guaranteed safe way for whole of house metal poisoning treatment!