Water Quality From Your Water Supplier

[ShinySideUp]

I had a thought recently about using water treatments to remove heavy metals, chlorine, lead etc and how much they cost. I wondered if I really needed to treat the water considering I didn't even know what was in it. So, I wrote to my local water company -- South West Water -- and asked them for a chemical breakdown of the constituents of the domestic water supply.

I am amazed and pleasantly surprised by their reply. Two days ago a representative of SSW phoned me to say that my request for information had been passed to their scientific department and I should expect a letter from them shortly. Today I received the letter which was a complete list of chemicals added, treated for, removed and required with quantities and upper and lower limits listed too.

I know South West Water is one of the most expensive water companies in the UK so it's nice to know exactly what they do. They even included a special leaflet they produce regarding fish-keeping. Nice.

Turns out that they do add chlorine so I won't be able to stop using water treatment chemicals afterall (unless, as they advised, I can leave the replacement water overnight for the chlorine to dissipate -- wonders how I can store 80 litres of replacement water overnight)

 

[Prime Ordeal]

All that information is available online on the suppliers websites in great detail for every part of the country.

 

[Mowbz]

Turns out that they do add chlorine so I won't be able to stop using water treatment chemicals afterall (unless, as they advised, I can leave the replacement water overnight for the chlorine to dissipate -- wonders how I can store 80 litres of replacement water overnight)

Thats fine for Chlorine, but not for Chloramine. If it does indeed list chloramine (Chlorine and Ammonia), then gassing off wont work.

 

[MBOU]

Do they not add any form of chlorine? And are there no traces of metals like iron or copper at all?

You also have to bear in mind all the pipework that water has to travel through to get to you... It would have picked up nitrates, nitrites or metals etc in the pipework.

Seeing as they are being so helpful, you should say you are having your problems with you water and that the results dont match what they say... can they possibly find a way of testing your water for you? lol

I know our water at the moment has extremely high levels of chlorine as its eyewatering to smell water out the tap. Its also testing with 80-100ppm nitrates and sometimes 0.25 nitrites.

Try dealing with Thames Valley Water, they are awful! They wont be helpfull, wont tell you whats in the water, if you mention the problems and that the water is testing high you get the response "it is highly likely that the test kit you are using is inaccurate, we regularly test our water and we dont have any problems".

Ihave got a tally chart when i ask customers to test their tap water and have 20+ people within a 5-10 mile radius all with the same high tap readings! TVW arent interested at all

 

[CezzaXV]

If you have the means of scanning/taking a photo of the letter, I'd be interested in seeing what it says. I live in Devon too

 

[ShinySideUp]

If you have the means of scanning/taking a photo of the letter, I'd be interested in seeing what it says. I live in Devon too

I'm afraid there is rather a lot of it, it runs to seven pages of information, far more than is available on the SWW website. It is also quite specific to reservoirs within 15 miles of where I live in East Cornwall so probably would not be relevant to your area. They were very helpful though and if you have a specific question I'm sure they would oblige with the info.

Martin

PS It'a nice to know that that the levels of faecal coliform and faecal strep are zero!

 

[ShinySideUp]

Ihave got a tally chart when i ask customers to test their tap water and have 20+ people within a 5-10 mile radius all with the same high tap readings! TVW arent interested at all

I know when I lived in Maidenhead years ago that water quality was variable to say the least. I think it must have depended on how far up the flood plain the Thames rose at a particular time of the year as to what got washed into the water supply . I had to change my kettle every year because of the build-up of limescale (not blaming TVW for this) such was the hardness of the water. Here in Cornwall a kettle lasts until it breaks with no crusting at all -- great for my fish too.