We have written about boil water orders all over the country since starting this site several years ago… and just to prove a point, check out these recent stories about communities instructed boil their water because of water main breaks, equipment failures, etc.
Now that we have your attention, we would like to THANK municipal water treatment facilities all across the country for doing an excellent job. Seems backwards, given that we just provided links to news stories about communities whose water needed or may still need boiling before consumption, but if you really think about it, the number of boil water orders issued each year barely makes a blip on the radar when compared to the number of water treatment facilities that go an entire year without so much as a single violation.
So should folks on municipal (city) water worry about bacterial contamination? Not as much as folks on well water, but it wouldn’t hurt to add a device such as an Ultraviolet Water Sterilizer System to your home just in case a water main breaks, a piece of equipment goes out at the treatment plant, or a small fissure in one of the numerous miles of water lines between the water treatment plant and your faucets allows unwanted bacteria access to your water supply.
You said, “Not as much as folks on well water…”
We meant what we said and said it for a number of reasons. The main reason has to do with the fact that unless private well owners test their own water, no one will ever know if the water produced by their wells contains harmful contaminants… most notably bacteria and/or other biological contaminants known to cause illness.
Hard glass germicidal lamps in ultraviolet water sterilizers provide an economical and effective means of treating water that may or may not contain bacteria, viruses and/or protozoa.
UV sterilization eliminates and or renders harmless greater than 99% of those things and does so without needing to use aggressive chemicals such as chlorine… making ultraviolet water sterilization a great add-on for any water system.
It would also work well as a safeguard against incidental bacterial contamination of well water that would not otherwise pass through any sort of filter at all.
