Before we get into the meat of it all. When we do simple water tests, we usually just focus a few matrices. One of them is the TDS reading. TDS stands for totally dissolved substances.

What does a TDS meter report? It measures the combined content of all inorganic and organic substances contained in a liquid (in parts per million, ppm). Could be anything really; agricultural and residential runoff, leaching of soil contamination and point source water pollution discharge from industrial or sewage treatment plants.

The most common chemical constituents are calcium, phosphates, nitrates, sodium, potassium and chloride. More exotic, harmful elements of TDS are pesticides arising from surface runoff.

Generally, a high TDS levels generally indicate hard water, which can cause scale buildup in pipes, valves, and filters that reduces performance and adds to system maintenance costs. (down side to hard water)

The TDS readings we have been picking up in the local areas are way beyond and above that U.S. EPA maximum contamination level of 500ppm. Recently in the Red Oak, TX area I have personally come in contact with families drinking water with a TDS reading of 897ppm. And that should be a boil alert.

However, if you consider the fact that pure water only should have a TDS reading between 0-15ppm (our personal standard is 0-5ppm) then it becomes clear that many families are taking in a lot of impurities. And I will invite you to do the same. Whenever you get your water tested, get a TDS reading and whenever you get a water treatment system have another reading done to see how improvement has been done.

So with that said, the TDS reading of an average Ozarka bottled water was 26ppm (7 bottles were tested). Some bottles were higher and others were as low as 23ppm. We previously published an article that addressed dangers every consumer should be aware of and of those dangers, we stressed a lot the source of the bottled water and the quality. There are no regulations that require bottled water companies such as Ozarka, Nestle, etc, to report the make up of their bottled water. The 23ppm avg. could imply anything to a consumer.

Once again, we’ve discussed why it is important for the consumer to purify his/her own water from home. Not only is it cheaper, there is greater deal of control and protection.

More of our water tests and municipal water has been compiled by my team and is available to all who seek more information about the water we use everyday.

Thanks

Eliel Arrey,

Water Treatment Specialist

Source by Eliel Arrey