||| FROM ROBERT AUSTIN |||
I’ve noticed that over the past couple months, water at our Timber Lane house seems to have grown harder than normal: rinsing my car off left behind hundreds of little white edged circles, evaporated mineral deposits. As you probably know, this is due to dissolved calcium and magnesium salts from our aquifer—the so-called “hardness.”
I ordered a titration (drop by drop) test kit—these are more accurate than test strips—and found that our water had a hardness of about 270 ppm. This is about equal to a quarter gram of minerals per liter of water. A test out at Sunset Ave. indicated 137 ppm, while another set at Hilltop Lane averaged around 190.
Any reading over 180 ppm is considered “very hard” and can cause some serious problems over time, from the buildup of scale (precipitated minerals) on anything (like a hot water heater) with heating elements exposed to water, to aggravating skin conditions, to reducing the effectiveness of soap and detergent. Removing the calcium and magnesium is possible, using an ion exchange resin system, perhaps part of a whole house filtration system.
It’s not the responsibility of EWUA or other water providers to remove hardness, because it’s not considered hazardous to our health. Most of us likely don’t think about it, until our water tank stops working, or a pox appears on our just-washed cars. But we should all be aware of the long term effects that hardness can have on our hardware and ourselves, and consider taking steps to reduce those effects.
The samples we initially took were from three different locations which might have had hardness variations due to which well or source happened to be closest by. It would be interesting to be able to further map such variations across other areas of Eastsound. For contrast, our Rosario water tested out to about 80 ppm.
When I contacted EWUA manager Dan, he responded promptly and recommended a couple different possible filters that can remove hardness. Very helpful. I believe he might be sending around a more detailed message on this topic in the near future.
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