In the article, residents of Lanare share some of their memories of growing up with the tap water in that area. One resident remembers their mother cooked with tap water that turned her rice green. Other longtime residents recall how their tap water smelled like rotten eggs. The water doesn’t smell as bad now, but Nelson and her neighbors still can’t drink from the faucet because the water is contaminated with high levels of arsenic and, at times, E. coli. Can’t drink from the faucet? Many of us won’t drink from the faucet, but can’t? Everyone has a right to safe drinking water supplied from their faucet, especially when the community is getting it from county water sources, not a well. As one resident says, “The water is against people’s health. Everyone should have clean water to bathe, cook and drink. It’s everybody’s right as a member of this community to have clean water.”

What they don’t like is living without basic public services, like sewer lines. Their septic tanks sometimes back up into homes or leak raw sewage into yards. There are no sidewalks or streetlights, and there are not enough storm drains. “But across California, there are hundreds of neighborhoods like Lanare. These poor, dense and unincorporated communities on county land — which uniformly lack some combination of sewer, clean drinking water, sidewalks, streetlights and gutters — are routinely overlooked by government.”

Most residents are left to fending for themselves – forced to spend money themselves on services the rest of the country receives as a benefit of paying taxes. Residents of Lanare pay at least $54 a month for non-potable water. They also spend $25 each month on bottled water, which everyone in the neighborhood relies on, at least “until the money runs out,” said Ethel Myles, 74, who has lived in Lanare more than 50 years.  ”We need clean water,” she said. “We stay in America, and there’s supposed to be clean water. Because we’re a little place, they don’t care about us. It makes me feel left out and without.”

Residents or even government agencies could look into home water filters to utilize the tap water but remove unsafe contaminants while still producing a constant flow of clean drinking water. This water would be safe to bathe in, shower in, cook with, and drink – something these residents don’t have but deserve. Unincorporated residents can feel good about their safe drinking water with a water cooler, too. This is also an affordable way to provide homes and businesses with safe drinking water no matter what the demand. Impoverished cities and towns need safe drinking water, too. Affordable solutions like reverse osmosis and water coolers are out there, and should be utilized to the fullest to keep all Americans safe, incorporated or unincorporated.

According to a recent blog from the EPA and author Nancy Stoner, “our supply of water becomes a more critical issue each day as the population grows; more water is used for agriculture, energy, industry; and droughts and other impacts of climate change increasingly stress our water resources. In fact, 36 states are expected to experience water shortages by 2013.” That’s 36 states around the country who could face the impact of water shortages. The water shortage problems  include, but by no means are limited to, less crops produced, less timber for sale, less drinking water, higher food prices, less jobs, and so much more!

Although the Earth is known as the water planet, and even though 70 percent of its surface is covered by water, less than 1 percent is available for human use. There are currently 40 mayors who have signed on, including the mayors of Los Angeles, Miami, Denver and Honolulu. Participating residents can win prizes including Toyota Prius Hybrid vehicles and home water makeover kits. Most importantly, people will see real results based on simple actions they can take to save water and energy.

This is a great start and communities could also use a little extra help to win. The secret? A drinking water system in homes which is an affordable and eco-friendly option to save water waste with one with the latest in water technology, and produces safe drinking water. Water coolers could also have the same results for your home which could drastically reduce water waste, water usage, and support the quest for water conservation that this nation needs and will need even more in the future. The 2011 drought in Texas cost the state more money than ever before. Crops, timber, and cotton were just some of the major productions affected by the reduction in rain and water available. Some municipalities are looking to put some strict water enforcements and requirements on their residents. With a home drinking water system or an advanced water cooler, you won’t have to worry about not having enough safe drinking water  or that you are not being a part of the solution.

Fracking, a process used to draw fossil fuels from shale, involves pumping water – and a few chemicals – into the earth. However, according the head of the petroleum engineering department at Texas A&M University, “No matter what you may read, hydraulic fracturing does not involve pumping toxic chemicals under high pressure near public aquifers.” Also, he stated that 99.5% of what is commonly used is very simply a mixture of pure water and quartz sand. The remaining 0.5% is guar gum (a food product), mild detergents, and bactericide. Even the EPA administrator admits publicly that she is “not aware of any proven case where the fracking process itself has affected water.”

Okay, so both sides present a pretty convincing story. Which do you believe? Personally, I’m not sure that it matters to me whether they debate it all year long, as long as the drinking water my family consumes is safe and tastes good. I guess I’m not overly convinced that there isn’t a hidden motive behind the anti-fracking AND the scientific studies, so I doubt that I’ll ever trust either theory completely. And, I’m sure not going to wait until they are finished arguing to get a drink! That’s why I think it’s important to take matters into our own hands with the help of a high-quality water treatment system that includes either a reverse osmosis or ion exchange water filter. I honestly believe that waiting for the newspaper to report whether or not my water is safe is like burying my head in the sand waiting for it to all get better. I refuse to trust my health and my children’s health to a gas or oil company who stands to lose millions if my town’s water problems are pinned on them.

The good news is that water treatment doesn’t have to break the bank or be time consuming and labor intensive. You can simply call a water treatment company in your local area, have them test your water, and ask that they recommend a drinking water system that will meet your water demands and budget. Most importantly, however, is that you make sure that the drinking water system is certified by the Water Quality Association to remove the contaminants that exist in your area.

The topic is discussed in a recent online article from appeal-democrat.com, which explains that “for those who live in areas just outside city limits or in rural areas, some pursue annexation into incorporated areas for access to contaminant-free municipal water supplies, others opt for bottled water or home filtration systems. Schools are faced with their own challenges.” These challenges are serious, especially because it deals with providing safe drinking water to students.

California changed its arsenic standard in 2008 from 50 ppb to 10 ppb, and after that, many schools were not in compliance with the new requirements. Ever since then, schools have been working to find permanent solutions for their water supply. According to the article, “Those not connected to a community public water source, such as Yuba City, are considered their own public water source and legally required to fall below California’s maximum contaminant level of 10 parts per billion, at whatever cost, though students may be allowed to drink the same water at home across the street.”

While no schools in Yuba County have this issue, there are several schools in Sutter County working to find a solution. Long-term exposure to arsenic in drinking water has been linked to several cancers and cardiovascular, immune system, neurological and endocrine problems. Many school officials stressed that though the arsenic levels are elevated, exposure has been eliminated and any risk from arsenic that had been in the water would be minimal. One administrator admits that this does bring about red flags, even if the levels are right under the requirements. As a parent or a concerned citizen, you want children to have safe drinking water wherever they are – in the home or in the school.

After its first elevated arsenic level was reported, board members approved an $11,000 project to install more than 30 point-of-use filters on every drinking fountain and below every school sink. But this is not the permanent solution they have been looking for. Although home filtration systems may work in many households in the area and are the perfect solution for removing the arsenic from the water, the schools need a bigger fix. They have considered everything from providing bottled water to using grant money to fund a pipeline which will bring in water from Yuba County.

“Parts of Sutter County have long had the reputation of having elevated levels of minerals, salts, and other materials.” While schools work to solve their issue, what can residents do to solve the problem within their household? As previously mentioned, drinking water systems can be an efficient and affordable way to provide your family with safe drinking water. Finding a system which wastes up to 90% less water than traditional reverse osmosis systems is also an eco-friendly solution. While the schools work to take down the red flags, make your solution an easy and affordable one – a home drinking water system. To read more on the problems faced by these schools, click here.

Anytime we are thirsty we can simply choose whether to drink sugar, caffeine or both.  The simple choice of drinking water, plain old water, just doesn’t enter into the minds of most people anymore.  Perhaps it is due to the mass marketing of all these neat, interesting, keep-you-awake drinks that are slamming us from every side.  Whether on television, radio, bill boards or on every social media site available as well as banner ads on websites, these ads for drinks certainly aren’t for simple water.  There is no way to escape the mass advertising of these different drinks.  The market for flavored water is amazing.  Unfortunately, the obesity problem in this country can be largely contributed to what we choose the drink.

Soda pop, strawberry milk, or juice used to be a treat that kids got on family trips or special occasions.  Flavored milk was only available at school one day a week or even one day a month.  Now these drinks are simply within reach at any given minute of the day to our children because adults want them, too.  The real problem is that these drink companies aren’t just stopping with adding flavor and water, now they have added caffeine and called them “energy” drinks.  The caloric intake of these drinks is amazing but we don’t even look at the label to see how many servings one container is worth or how many calories we are consuming.  We simply pop the top and guzzle.

While schools have begun to listen to the experts and in many places have removed the soda machines from the schools, juice machines and flavored water appear to still be acceptable.  However, these two also pack a punch when the amount of sugar in each one is considered.  According to one site, Sunny D and Gatorade have just as much or maybe more sugar and calories than the banned sodas have.

A study conducted by the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan found that 85% of 8^th graders said they consumed sugary drinks at least once a week and 26% to 33% reported they actually drank sugary drinks daily.  Drinking these high calorie sugary drinks daily can actually increase a child’s odds of becoming obese by a whopping 60%.   However, middle school isn’t the only level of students involved in choosing drinks that are potentially the unhealthiest drink available.  America’s high school and college students have been taking advantage of the “energy drinks”.  These drinks contain between 70 and 80 mg of caffeine per serving, some of them have as much caffeine as slamming 14 cans of Coke all at once.  We all know that the first couple of years of college are as much about having fun as attending classes.  Sometimes the partying takes precedence and sleep takes the back burner, then when it’s time to study or cram as they call it, the energy drinks come out to help keep them awake.  And as with anything in college there are always experiments, like mixing energy drinks and alcohol.  These can actually be deadly.   It’s pretty tough to finish college much less cram for a test when one is passed out cold or worse from mixing two drinks that shouldn’t even be on the same shelf let alone in the same body.

After all this information passes through your mind, consider drinking water.  Yes, to many kids it is boring; to others it simply doesn’t taste good.  But to your body it is the healthiest thing you can drink.  The taste of water can actually be changed without adding sugar and flavors.  It is possible to have great tasting water right out of the kitchen faucet that everyone in the house would be happy to drink.  While the endless choices of drinks have been developing over the last few years so have the choices in home water treatment systems.  We no longer have to go out and buy bottled water to get the right taste.  It is a matter of knowing what systems are available and what they can do for us.

There have been advancements made to water softener systems, water coolers, water filtration systems, and reverse osmosis systems, all to make them economically fit for individual homes.  These water treatment businesses have known from the beginning that it all comes back to water, our bodies require water.  Since the largest complaint about water has been the taste or flavor of it, these companies have been making advancements in technology to change the flavor.  Making chlorinated city water taste like good old country well water to encourage people to get back to drinking the one thing that the body actually craves.  For instance the LINX® Drinking Water System has three unique features that have never been offered on a drinking water system before now.  This system allows the consumer to choose the flavor of the water, use less water than other types of systems, and tell the consumer a detailed system status.  In a nutshell, this system is smart enough to save you money and your health.

With the current economic situation, we are all looking for ways to save money.  Consider all the money being spent every day on all these flavored sugary drinks from the store.  Take that money and purchase your own home water treatment system.  You now have great tasting water that is for one thing cheaper than all the other drinks and most of all its healthy for you.  Water no longer has to have the taste of chlorine from the city water treatment facility; it can have the flavor of spring water, drinking water, or purified water all with right system.    Americans not only need to be making wiser choices with our money, we also need to be making wiser choices for our body, health and that of our children.  Drinking water can do all of these things for us, it’s a simple choice really that makes good honest sense.

Now there are many types of water filters, but reverse osmosis has been one of the most popular drinking water systems and is still a major option for many homeowners. According to one informational site, “It starts with a membrane that only allows pure water or solvent to flow through it. It forces the water or solvent to pass through the membrane from high solute content region to low solute content region. [...] a reverse osmosis system is good for eliminating a wide range of contaminants such as chemicals, heavy metals like lead and heavy salt contents. The complete system strips out lead, copper, arsenic, cadmium, chlorine, Guardia, pesticides, salt, tri-halo-methanes, sulfates, cysts, and nitrates. It uses three tiered filter mechanism that filters out even small bacteria and viruses. It filters out smaller microbes as well that keeps your drinking water very safe.” Be sure to look for an eco-friendly water filtering system that reduces water waste. These do a good job and are even good for the environment.

We all love personalized service, but when it comes to creating something which will give us the safest drinking water, beyond just a store bought water filter, it is worth looking into. With all of the contaminants, minerals, and chemicals we can find in our drinking water, water filters are the best and most eco-friendly choice for homeowners. But with this purchase also comes the notion that it will actually work. Many of the water filters being sold are relatively ineffective, and overpriced. Don’t chance the store bought water filters that aren’t made just for you. Find one that is.

According to the CDC, millions of Crypto can be released in a bowel movement from an infected human or animal. To become infected, a person must consume contaminated food or water, including from streams or rivers. “Cryptosporidiosis is a diarrheal disease caused by a microscopic parasite that can live in the intestine of humans and animals and is passed in the stool of an infected person or animal. Both the disease and the parasite are commonly known as “Crypto.” The parasite is protected by an outer shell that allows it to survive outside the body for long periods of time and makes it very resistant to chlorine-based disinfectants.” Diarrhea, abdominal cramps, headaches, nausea, vomiting and a low-grade fever are symptoms which can last for weeks and may result in weight loss and dehydration. Symptoms are more severe for people with weakened immune systems and in the most extreme cases can lead to death. A reverse osmosis system or water filter is qualified to eliminate this parasite. You could boil all of your water which you want to consume, but that is time-consuming and not an eco-friendly solution. With a water filtration system, you are able to still provide your household with safe drinking water as if it were from the tap and worry less about what parasites or other unwanted contaminants you may be drinking.

The importance of water conservation and reducing water loss is important in everything from agriculture to business and residential users. In agriculture water conservation includes using low volume irrigation technologies, reusing and recycling waste water and having proper soil management. While all of these make a difference in the water usage, now agriculture is also developing more drought resistant seeds in order to grow crops that don’t require as much irrigation water. For instance, the USDA has approved the Monsanto drought resistant corn seed upon fears that droughts could significantly reduce the crop this next year. Monsanto has developed this new genetically modified breed of corn that should produce higher yields even in drought conditions than the previously used corn seed would. The problem that the USDA hasn’t considered is that genetically altered anything may have long term effects on the human body that haven’t been discovered yet. Rushing to allow new seed types on the market may be a huge mistake. Instead of simply bringing genetically altered seeds to the grower, perhaps information and new ways to reduce, recycle and reuse water should be at the top of the list.

All Americans are aware of the necessity of water to sustain life. This is a fact that is taught across the country in health class, children are told to drink more water. Adults are informed that for better health we need to drink more water. We cannot live without water. We are learning to reuse and recycle paper to save trees, plastic to save oil, rubber tires are being recycled. We can learn to reuse and recycle and even reduce on water use as well. It is possible to teach people how to schedule irrigating the yard at a time when it would use less water, not wash the car every week, and even reducing water use in the home. Everything from replacing an old toilet or faucet, fixing leaks, taking shorter showers, turning the water off while brushing your teeth, even bathing small children together saves water, these should be practiced by every American household.

Farmers aren’t the only ones that need to be careful of the water we use; every single American needs to be a responsible consumer. There are many new ways available to help us conserve and use our water wisely. Having our own home water treatment system is just one way to be a responsible consumer. Advances in technology have given us several options in water systems that will not only offer us cleaner, healthier water but will also help us use less of it. When we save water, we save money on utility bills too. In our tough economy even a small savings on any bill is welcome. Having great tasting water at the kitchen sink means no longer buying bottled water and that saves our environment as well. Saving water is easy for everyone to do, having your own drinking water treatment system in your home just makes it that much easier.

The Water Authority Board of Directors received a report on water supply and demand conditions at its monthly meeting. Staff attributed the improved supply conditions to several factors. Between a wet winter and responsible residents following the regulations and limitations, the water supply outlook for 2012 is looking much better than it did last year. “Regional water use has remained well below pre-drought levels in 2011, enabling water agencies to better manage available supplies.”

To continue this positive trend, residents must ban together and continue to utilize the options like environmentally-friendly and responsible drinking water systems to waste less water, use less water, and provide safe drinking water to the family. The forecast is great as of late and Californians can continue this trend with a drinking water system in 2012 too!

This increase is planned to cover capital improvement projects including replacing aging pipes and building a new Lake Wohlford Dam, operating costs such as increased water and chemical costs, and covering the city’s bond-debt ratio. This follows a 7% increase just last January.

While all of expenditures might be necessary, you might find yourself trying to use a little less water. As you look through your home, where do you see the biggest water waste? Where can you do a little water conservation project of your own? Some of the more obvious water users, of course, include lawn and garden irrigation, long showers, old toilets, and frequent loads of laundry. What you might not know, however, is that some typical household fixtures and plumbing are naturally water wasters.

Take, for example, a typical reverse osmosis drinking water system. Did you know that this water filter can waste more than 92% of its feed water under normal household conditions? This is primarily due to the pressure that is required to force the water through the RO’s membrane filter. Fortunately, there is new technology – the LINX® 140 Home Drinking Water System – that uses literally a fraction of the water than an RO does, all while delivering healthy, great tasting drinking water. This system, over the period of a year can easily save 4,000 if you consumed only one gallon of drinking water a day.

Conserving water – it’s not just for the environment, it’s for your pocket book too! To learn more about this water treatment option, click here. To learn more about the water rate hike, click here.