Sounds like it would make sense that treated, filtered water dispensed (sold) by a municipality or privatized water company would not contain potentially harmful levels of dissolved metals… but in reality they only have to make certain water they produce does not contain dissolved metals at the point where it leaves their facilities.

Between those facilities and the faucets of households on water systems lie vast networks of metal piping that can very easily leach small amounts of metals into the water supply… or worse, yet, leach potentially harmful amounts of lead, copper, iron, etc. into the water supply.

Oh, and if you live in a building or home built before the advent of builders using plastic (i.e. PVC) piping, well, that means you have metal plumbing in your home which could, in many cases, result in your water containing elevated levels of metals — especially if you also if you have problems with corrosive water and/or have water sitting in your lines for long periods of time (i.e. in the plumbing of vacation homes or lines connected to faucets/showers/etc. that do not get used on a regular basis).

Reducing and removing metals from drinking water?

Not all water filters will remove or reduce dissolved metals in water as efficiently and some water filters, despite the claims on their packaging, don’t really do a good job of removing metals at all.

As a general rule, one should NOT rely on faucet filters, shower filters, or other small point-of-use devices to keep them safe from water metals.

For the average homeowner we suggest looking at reverse osmosis water filters since they offer excellent filtration on their own for unwanted drinking water contaminants like metal ions & aqueous salts including sodium, chloride, copper, chromium, and lead. Additionally, reverse osmosis units typically also reduce arsenic, fluoride, radium, sulfate, calcium, magnesium, potassium, nitrate, and phosphorous levels in drinking water.

For industrial applications — or residential homeowners with a truly healthy budget — distillation systems also work well when it comes to removing and/or reducing metals from drinking water… but at this time we have no links to companies who supply distillation units. Perhaps one of our readers could help us out with this topic? 🙂

As an example of one of those inquiries, a reader named SonyaBWell asked, “The guy at [a LARGE retail store in her area] told us reverse osmosis wasted water and that we would save aa whole lot of money at the end of the day with a combination of faucet, shower, counter filters like [a LARGE retail store in her area] carries. He said reverse osmosis wastes like 20 or more than 20 galons just to make 1 or 2 galons of good water. Is that true?”

First of all, yes, reverse osmosis water filters do discard water down the drain as part of their operating process BUT the numbers quoted by our friend at, well, that store, sound like numbers taken from either the worst reverse osmosis systems currently in production or from the owner manuals of units from years ago.

These days reverse osmosis units remove an extreme amount of potentially dangerous, unwanted drinking water contaminants and during that process they do create a waste water stream, yes, as we said a minute ago, but where did you THINK all those contaminants went?

The discard water washes away all the contaminants that get filtered out of the source water. Without the flow of discarded water, the contaminants would remain trapped someplace in the reverse osmosis membranes and quickly cause problems with clogging.

Bottled water ‘better’ than RO water when it comes to waste water

If you think buying bottled water will somehow ‘save the planet’ from unnecessarily wasted water, think again. The next time you fork over your well-deserved money for a conveniently packaged, well (or super) purified water, take a good look at the label and more than likely you will see that it came from a water source that got filtered, more than likely at some point, using reverse osmosis.

That means on a grand scale, at some water purification factory, hundreds of thousands (and possibly millions?) of gallons of water a year get ‘wasted’ so that you can sip clean water from your recently purchased, overpriced bottle of water.

When finished with your purchase of a product that more than likely ‘wasted’ water, please do not forget to properly recycle that plastic bottle, OK? Throwing it in the trash along with other waste and saying, “My city doesn’t recycle.” … doesn’t cut it, either.

Tons of communities do not have official recycling programs but if you asked around we feel quite certain you could find the names and locations of a few places where you could properly deposit separated, recyclable products.

The convenience of bottled water comes with the burden of social responsibility. More people need to realize that… and the fact that most bottled water companies utilize reverse osmosis as a means of purifying their product.

Reverse osmosis water filters… Past versus present

As a general rule, older reverse osmosis units did discard more water than the newer reverse osmosis units and pretty much no one will dispute that fact…. but the ratio of discarded water to clean, dispensable drinking water has come down quite a bit and many reputable reverse osmosis units now claim to discard as few as 2 or 3 gallons of water for every gallon of filtered drinking water produced.

One last word regarding reverse osmosis and ‘wasted’ water

Have you ever thought about the number of activities you witness and/or participate in on a daily basis that, ahem… ‘waste’ water? While very few would argue over the necessity of these activities, they all result in discarded water… just like reverse osmosis:

• Washing dishes by hand or in a dishwasher
• Cleaning clothes by hand or in a washing machine
• Cleansing one’s body in a shower or bath
• Flushing the toilet

So, if safe, clean drinking water does not appeal to you because of a belief that reverse osmosis water filters ‘waste’ water, then perhaps you should give up a few other things… like clean dishes, clothes, bodies, and toilets.

Moral of the story

Check the the ratio of discard water versus retained, filtered water of any reverse osmosis water filtration system prior to purchase and compare its ratio to those of similar units. While in the end you will still wind up ‘wasting’ water in the name of getting thoroughly scrubbed drinking water, at least you did your due diligence in an effort to minimize the impact your wanting clean drinking water will have on the environment.

Although we have not, yet, decided for ourselves how we feel about the fluoridation of public water supplies, we do know that many people have already taken sides and line have already gotten drawn in the sand.

One one hand, some folks believe fluoridation of public water supplies has greatly helped the general public by making teeth more resistant to cavities and decay. On the other hand, with all the other sources of fluoride (i.e. dietary supplements, fluoride toothpaste, etc.) in the general public’s diet these days, some people have unknowingly received potentially unhealthy amounts of exposure to fluoride… and technically, fluoride counts as a toxic compound.

Getting back to the point of this article, though, Margaret asked, “I read on About.Com that reverse osmosis systems will remove fluoride from water an that they are too expensive for general use. Is that true?”

Quite honestly, we guess that the information on About.Com got posted a number of years ago when reverse osmosis water filtration systems did cost a small fortune — but those days have come and gone.

Nowadays the average homeowner can pick up an NSF/ANSI Certified point-of-use reverse osmosis water treatment for under $300.

As an example, the Pentek RO-3500 bears the NSF Mark (NSF/ANSI STANDARD 058) for its reduction of Arsenic (Pentavalent), Barium, Cadmium, Copper, Chromium (Hexavalent), Chromium (Trivalent), Cyst, Fluoride, Lead, Nitrate/Nitrite, Radium 226/228, Selenium, TDS, and Turbidity.

It also bears a second NSF Mark (NSF/ANSI STANDARD 042) for reduction of taste, odor and chlorine.

The first step towards choosing a water filter system?

Get your water tested by a certified water testing laboratory such as National Testing Laboratories to see what, if any, unwanted drinking water contaminants your water contains.