Eliminating Nasty Drinking Water Habits in Your Home

Drinking Water Quality Affected by Plumbing Pipe Quality

When it comes to drinking water, there are all sorts of bad habits Americans have gotten into. Like sharing a glass among family members at the bathroom sink. Or neglecting to boil water for a baby’s formula. Or even forgetting to let hot water run for at least 30 seconds, as recommended in many utility Water Quality Reports and the Safe Drinking Water Hotline, before drinking or cooking with it to reduce the risk of lead contamination.But perhaps one of the more pervasive, yet often overlooked, habits is the continued use of various plumbing materials that adversely affect water quality.

Studies confirm that copper, as a corrosion byproduct of copper plumbing, can be found at elevated levels at kitchen and bathroom taps in almost any part of the country. Exact copper concentrations are highly dependent on the quality of water carried in the pipes (how corrosive it is), as well as how long the water stands in the pipe and the age of the pipe. Third-party testing and certification labs, like NSF International, document that aggressive water (defined as water with pH of less than 6.5) may corrode copper at a rate sufficient to contaminate water beyond state and federal drinking water standards.

Data collected by the California Department of Health Services, Drinking Water Program, between 1984 and 1995 found that about 7 percent of the public drinking water sources tested had detectable levels of copper. In February 1997, The Office of Drinking Water for the EPA’s Environmental Criteria and Assessment Office reported that a majority of copper present in drinking water appears to come from copper water pipes. The EPA reported that it was not able to accurately estimate the number of individuals who regularly consume water that exceeds the copper Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL).

The challenge, according to the EPA’s own web site, is that “since copper contamination generally occurs from corrosion of household copper pipes, it cannot be directly detected or removed by the water system.” That means that even if water is determined to be safe from copper contamination when it leaves the municipal water utility, it can become contaminated after flowing through a home’s copper system.

Although copper is an essential nutrient which is required by the human body in very small amounts, the EPA has found copper to potentially cause the following health effects when people are exposed to it at levels above the Action Level (even for relatively short periods of time): stomach and intestinal distress, liver and kidney damage and anemia. Several medical studies that were published in the Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry and the Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology even link copper exposure to more severe health problems that can occur at elevated copper levels.

In addition to problems of copper leaching into drinking water, there are concerns how overall drinking water quality is affected after flowing through copper pipes. One look inside a cutaway piece of copper pipe that has been in service for even a short period of time (3-5 years) creates a vivid impression. Even where water is considered in the “normal” range and not aggressive, copper pipe forms a very distasteful, unsanitary buildup of scale.

The best way to protect your family from copper corrosion or the buildup that forms inside metal pipes is to choose a piping material that naturally and permanently reduces scaling and corrosion. Chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC), like that found in FlowGuard Gold® plumbing systems, will never corrode. And its smooth interior surface is not subject to buildup, which is not only unappealing, but also may eventually restrict water flow and create the need to repipe a home at an average cost of $4,500 - $6,000.

Substantiating the need to use alternative plumbing materials, Phil Bobel, environmental compliance manager at the Regional Water Quality Control Plant (RWQCP) in California reported, “We would like to see CPVC used wherever possible in new residential construction and re-piping… This would significantly reduce future copper discharge…. and help us bring the water back to cleaner conditions.”