How Safe is St. Helens
drinking 
How Safe is St. Helens drinking
hen
we open a bottle of water from the store, do you filter the water before you
drink it? Do you wonder if there are bacteria or harmful contaminants in
your bottle of water? Do you know where the water in the bottle came from? Where it was
bottled? How long has it been sitting in this bottle? Has the
bottled water been tested and meets the strict Federal and State drinking water
standards and regulations?
Generally we just open a bottle of water and begin drinking the water, because for some reason, we have just come to trust that the water in the bottle is clean and safe or it would not be in the bottle on the shelf in the store in the first place. Right?
n
contrast, when you turn on your faucet and fill a glass with water, do you
filter the water before you drink it? If so, why?
o
you wonder if there are bacteria or harmful contaminants in your tap water?
If so, why?
o
you know where your drinking water comes from?
ow
long has it been in the pipes before arriving at your home?
ow
fresh is your
drinking water?
as
the water been tested for pharmaceuticals, bacteria or other harmful
contaminants to meet the strict Federal and State drinking water standards?
THE SOURCE OF ST. HELENS DRINKING WATER
he
source of St. Helens drinking water begins 80 feet below the surface of the
Columbia River. First, a 16 foot diameter, concrete well casing, (or
caisson - pronounced - case on ), was installed straight down into the bank of
the Columbia river. In the bottom section of the caisson, (that is below
the layers of mud, sand and gravel of the river), a series of 10 inch steel pipes are drilled
out from the caisson, like the spokes of a wheel, into the water saturated layer
of sand and gravel called an aquifer. The end section of pipe of the
lateral has screens that keep out the sand and gravel, yet allows the water to
flow freely into the pipe, which is then drawn up into the well house and pumped
to the filtration treatment plant. A point of interest: The layers of
mud, silt, sand and gravel acts like a pre-filter for our source water, and even if
the river water is flowing full of dirt and mud, like after heavy rains or
melting snow, the water
entering the well house caisson,
is almost crystal clear!
Do you filter the water coming into your home?
Many of our customers feel the need to filter the water flowing from their faucets in their homes because they have "heard" that their water is not safe to drink. Many even think that the drinking water is pumped directly from the Columbia River, some chlorine is added and then it is delivered to their home and faucets. Some residents have even been told that St. Helens drinking water will make you sick, so they only drink bottled water.
The filters that many
households have installed in their homes and on their faucets are capable of removing the chlorine
taste, removing any color and improve the taste, but cannot remove bacteria. With that thought in mind, did you know
that your drinking water flowing from your home faucet has been filtered through Microfiltration modules inside the
filtration plant? (picture on the top right) Inside each of these
modules, there are literally thousands of tiny hollow fibers. (6,350 in each
module) Only water is able to pass through
the skin of the fibers but the microscopic "bugs or bacteria" cannot squeeze
through such as E.Coli,
Cryptosporidium and
Giardia.
Instead the "bugs" or bacteria, are trapped on the skin of the fibers and filtered out of the water and then backwashed off the filters and sent down the drain to the wastewater treatment plant.
Did you know that bacteria can grow on anything? When we use a Granulated Activated Carbon (GAC) filter element on our faucets a major problem that occurs, is that the carbon adsorbs, not absorb like a sponge, but rather collects tiny particles on the surface of the carbon media, such as chlorine molecules, some bacteria, tastes and odors as well as iron from the water. The water that remains in the filter after you draw water through it, is when the bacteria begin to grow and multiply. Bacteria grow most effectively in a dark, moist atmosphere, (like inside the GAC) especially if there is no disinfectant in the remaining water, such as overnight when the water is no longer being used for many hours. The carbon keeps adsorbing things from the water and soon the carbon becomes used up and is no longer able to adsorb anything more from the water. At this point, when water passes through the filter, bacteria and other foreign matter that has collected on the GAC sluffs off and you then get a more concentrated dose of contaminants that you were trying to remove in the first place! The life of a carbon filter depends on how much water passes through the element and how dirty or contaminated the water feeding the filter is. Chlorine uses up the carbon very quickly, so if you start tasting chlorine in your water, change the filter. When you have a filter on your faucet, it is a good practice to flush it out , letting the water run for 15 to 20 seconds before you draw your first glass from the tap. Many persons fill a pitcher with water then use it to water their houseplants, thus not wasting the water. One other advantage to running the faucet first thing in the morning, is to flush out the copper, lead and brass that leeches out from the plumbing in your home during the 8 to 10 hours the faucet was not used during the night or day while you were away at school or work.
We want you to know that the St. Helens Microfiltration process is closely monitored, operated and maintained by State of Oregon certified water treatment operators with many years of training and experience, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As mentioned at the beginning of this section of the page, your drinking water is also tested regularly by State of Oregon, certified laboratories to insure that you have a safe, high quality drinking water being delivered to your home and faucets.
Installing a filter on your faucet is a personal decision, but at least now you know that your drinking water does not come from the river and that the water is micro-filtered and is bacteria and pharmaceutical free!
How old is my drinking water or Just How Fresh is my glass of water?
The City of St. Helens uses about 1.5 million gallons of drinking water a day in the Winter and Spring and about 3.5 million gallons of water a day in Summer and Fall. The water flow through the treatment plant is 2,200 gallons a minute in the Winter and Spring and 3,600 gallons a minute in the Summer and Fall. The filtration plant fills the reservoirs every day. The reservoirs at the present time hold 5 million gallons of water. So, at in the Winter and Spring your glass of water is about 3 days old since it left the water plant. In the Summer and Fall your glass of water is almost 30 hours or 1 1/2 days old since it left the water plant.
I don't like the taste of St. Helens drinking water!
Water loves to grab onto particles of minerals as it travels along through the miles of pipe before coming into your home. The water supplying the St. Helens filtration plant is 52 to 56 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the temperature water begins collecting the many flavors of the natural minerals like Calcium, Iron and Manganese, and when the water sits in a reservoir or your home plumbing, as the water temperature slightly increases, the water becomes more aggressive and pulls in more flavors even from the surface contact with air in the enclosed reservoir.
In your home when the water has been sitting say, all day because no one is home to use the water, the water temperature may rise 10 to even 20 degrees in the pipes. The water may still feel cool, however, this is a fact, for every 17 degrees rise in water temperature, the corrosion or aggressiveness of the water doubles. This is why the first draw of water you pull from a faucet in the morning to make that coffee or brush your teeth seems to take on the taste of copper, metal or in my house, plastic! Fortunately St. Helens does not have tar lined water mains like we had in Alaska, now there was some nasty tasting water coming out of the pipe! The EPA and AWWA, drinking water agencies, recommend that we let our faucets run for 20 seconds before taking a glass or filling the coffee pitcher with the water, to flush out the flavors that have collected in the water overnight.
We have found that even here in the water plant, when we fill our gallon jugs with water and place them in the ice box and let it chill, now there is some GREAT tasting drinking water, whereas, when we get a glass of the same water from the tap in our sink at the same time we are filling the jugs, ehhhhh, not so great a taste. Even when using water from a drinking fountain, say in a store, we have learned that if you turn on the water and let it begin flowing, if you wait until you hear the cooling coil compressor turn on, you have flushed out the water that has been sitting idle and warming up inside the little reservoir of the drinking fountain. You will be surprised how much better the water tastes if you let it get cold first. At home, I have the luxury of having a water dispenser on the front of my refrigerator, which also has a carbon filter on the line. But even then, I will fill my first glass up with the water, pour it out, then fill the glass a second time, and get a great glass of water every time!
If you are going to serve water in a pitcher and set it on the table, be sure to add ice cubes, and if you have the luxury of a fresh lemon, add a slice of the lemon, not squeezed just sliced, into the water. The citric of the lemon literally kills the chlorine in the water and the water will even taste fresher. If you know ahead of time, set the covered pitcher in the refrigerator and get the water chilled. By covering the water, the "air" in the refrigerator with the many smells in there, will not find their way into your water.
No, St. Helens water is not an "acquired" taste, it is a very good and reliable source of drinking water, enjoy!
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Ways to
disinfect your water during an emergency
Portable filtration systems for personal use
Questions
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This page was last updated on 7/20/2010 by Howard (Howie) Burton
