I’m looking for someone who can help me understand and recommend a water treatment system for one of my customers that I do plumbing for routinely. I don’t know much about water systems and I’d like to get this work from her.
She called me the other day saying she was recently hospitalized and it was discovered she had Giardiaosis, or something like that caused by Giardia. The belief was that it must have come from her water (she has a well). She had the water tested by DEP who only reported that it was “contaminated” and provided her no additional information.
If indeed she has giardia in her water, what is the best filtration system to kill it, and what would be an “about” price someone is usualy paying for such a system? She was told she needed a reverse osmosis with a Ultraviolet light but I don’t know if they’re effective or not. Your advice is appreciated. PS her well is upstream of course from her septic system (which is now public sewer as we hooked her up 3 mos ago).
Thanks
Replies
You really need to get the water tested and see what all is in it first.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/giardiasis/factsht_giardia.htm
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
I'm showing my ignorance on the subject when I ask, arent' there really two water filter systems on the block? Ultraviolet (not a filter per se) and Reverse osmosis and all of its wasteful backwashing? If true then does it matter so much what the contaminants really are and it's just a matter of installing one of the two or both?If at first you don't succeed, try using a hammer next time...everything needs some extra persuasion from time to time. -ME
How can I remove Giardia from my drinking water?
Fully boiling your water for 1 minute (3 minutes if you live in a high altitude) will kill or inactivate Giardia. Water should then be stored in a clean container with a lid and refrigerated.
An alternative to boiling water is using a point-of-use filter. Not all home water filters remove Giardia. Filters that are designed to remove the parasite should have one of the following labels:
* Reverse osmosis,
* Absolute pore size of 1 micron or smaller,
* Tested and certified by NSF Standard 53 for cyst removal, or
* Tested and certified by NSF Standard 53 for cyst reduction.
Although Giardia is larger than one micron in size, filters with pore sizes of absolute one micron can filter out Giardia as well as Cryptosporidium. If you want to know more about these filters, please contact NSF International, an organization for public health and safety through standards development, product certification, education, and risk-management.
NSF International
3475 Plymouth Road
P.O. Box 130140
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48113-0140
Phone number: (877) 867-3435
Web site: http://www.nsf.org
As you consider ways to disinfect your well, it is important to note that Giardia is moderately chlorine resistant. Contact your local health department for recommended procedures. Remember to have you well water tested regularly after disinfection to make sure the problem does not happen again.
http://www.cdc.gov/Ncidod/dpd/healthywater/factsheets/giardia.htm
But if there are other contaminates in the water those might not be enough.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
If it's giardia (as proven by well testing) then the well is badly contaminated and shouldn't be used at all. If giardia can get in then so can a whole flock of other nasties. (But then, again, giardia may just be due to a rat in the well, and easily fixed by flushing the well and rat-proofing the wellhead.)
But if she maybe occasonally drinks the "pure" water from a nearby brook, that would more likely be the problem.
FWIW, giardia itself is easily removed with a simple high-efficiency (1-4 micron) media filter. UV light is relatively ineffective against giardia.
Giardia is a protozoa, not a bacteria. In practical terms, this means it's much larger, and can be blocked by a fairly coarse filter. Much easier, and effective, than chemical treatment, boiling, etc.
There is something to be said for designing multiple filters into a home's plumbing. Right now, I am having to spend a few bucks on my plumbing fixtures, all because a plumber working upstream released a bunch of rust, etc., into the line. Oops.
Anyway, in more general terms, there are several varieties of water treatments. Which ones you use depends upon exactly what it is you are trying to accomplish.
Most often, your needs can be met with fairly simple 'mechanical' filters. Included with these are those whose media chemically bonds with whatever it is you want to remove. Filters, Activated carbon, and de-ionizing cartridges are in this category.
UV light - useful for killing viruses, bacteria, and algae - are often added as a 'final stage' to mechanical systems.
"Active" systems, like water softeners, add something that is supposed to catch the bad stuff, then remove it at the final stage.
Related to this are the systems that simply add something - like chlorine - to accomplish the goal.
Reverse Osmosis can be best thought of as a 'boil-free' distillation method. OK, I oversimplify ... but that's the effect. You consume loads more water than you produce with this method.
Some good info has already been posted, but here are a couple of additional comments. First, it is unusual, and expensive, to test a well for Giardia. Usually, the test is for fecal coliform or E. coli bacteria. The source of the infection could be other than the well, but if the well is contaminated then the well problem needs to be corrected. Neither Giardia nor fecal coliform occur naturally in groundwater, so if the well is contaminated with either, there is almost certainly a problem with the well that allows surface water into the well. It could be a bad casing, lack of grout, or some other problem. A well driller may be able to help diagnose and, perhaps, correct that problem. The well may be in such bad shape that a new well is a better option. Adding a filter or disinfection to a well that allows gross surface entry is not the best solution.
Very much agree. You have to have major problems (though "major" may just be a loose sell cap) to get gardia in a well. Need to fix the problems.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
You'll need expert advice on this one. Like others have said, Giardia is a protozoan, much larger than a bacterium. It is not killed by traditional disinfection, but, being large, can be caught by a fiter fine enough. I would not trust that ultraviolet treatment can kill it unless a reliable source says so.
It's worth a phone call either to the department of health or to a local licensed engineer who frequently works on municipal water treatment. Or to the local town engineer or to an instructor of a state certified water treatment course.
In a proper well there should be no contamination from surface water, and giardia, if I'm right, is present only in surface water. So rather than filtration, which requires maintenance, it might be a better solution, albeit more expensive, to redrill the well with proper grouting and isolation from surface water.
Once again, there's a good chance that someone left the well uncovered and a rat or muskrat or some such fell in. That's the first possibility I'd check.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
I never heard of Giardia contaminating a well from a dead animal. I guess it's possible, but the contamination I'm accustomed to hearing from a dead animal is baterial, e.coli, etc.If at first you don't succeed, try using a hammer next time...everything needs some extra persuasion from time to time. -ME
But giardia only comes from animals, mostly rodents and the like. If the well is contaminated with the stuf it's either runoff getting into the well or the actual animal.
(Not saying that there wouldn't be other contamination in the well from a dead animal, but you can get sick from one and not have the other bother you -- just depends on what you've got the least resistance to.)
It's also possible that a rodent got into the well, fell a distance, lost it's lunch out of both ends, and then climbed out up the pipe. Ideal scenario for giardia.
I'm just saying that a check of the well for physical "security" is probably one of the first orders of business.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
Yep. Start with the simple things first.
Giardiasis is also known as "beaver fever", due to it's association with animals. Here's an authoritative article on it. The article does describe what type of filter is needed to remove the cysts -- a filter with an absolute (not a nominal) rating of 1 micron or smaller. With well water such a filter will clog quickly, so it has to be preceeded by one or more prefilters, such as 20 micron or so.
http://www.bchealthguide.org/healthfiles/hfile10.stm