To put it bluntly, there is absolutely no doubt that contaminated water is a huge impediment in the quest to live a healthy life.The majority of drinking water contains lots of chemicals, minerals, and additional pollutants that may have a dangerous impact on your overall health. These are usually removed before it is deemed safe drinking water. Yet the true reality is that our drinking water is packed full of contaminants that cannot be seen.
Due to the camp lejeune water pollution lawsuit that is taking place, it’s super important that you keep an eye out for signs of contaminated water. By doing so, you’re safeguarding the health of you and anyone sharing your water supply.
If you don’t know what to look for, here are the top 5 signs.
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It’s Cloudy
A lot of municipal water systems don’t filter out naturally occurring substances and minerals from various drinking water supplies. As a result, these harmless compounds may often give water a foamy or cloudy appearance.
If you are drinking a glass of water and the foam and clouds do not disappear over some time, the discoloration might be caused by harmful bacteria.
Let’s say you find yourself in this situation. The next logical step is to contact a professional and have the water contaminated if the problem continues.
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It Has A Metallic Taste
It may sound a bit obvious, but contaminated water is not going to taste right. This means it may be relatively easy to spot whether or not you are drinking such water. Your taste buds are pretty delicate. Despite this, they are pretty good at detecting dangerous or bad substances such as bad quality or contaminated water. Rusting pipes can release metals including zinc, manganese, copper, and iron into local water supplies which results in a metallic taste. If you taste anything like this in your water, it is likely contaminated.
It may also taste slightly bitter, which is usually caused by the internal pipework we have mentioned above.
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It Smells Like Sulfur
Sulfur is a naturally occurring mineral that is relatively prevalent in some water systems. Groundwater contains lots of sulfates from the soil and rocks that it comes into contact with. A small amount of sulfur won’t cause much harm, but a large amount could lead to severe dehydration or issues in the intestine!
You cannot miss this smell. The best way to describe it is that it smells like rotten eggs. So, if you ever smell anything similar while you are drinking your water, stop what you’re doing and report it so the water can be treated!
Sulfur smells can be eliminated using a water filter.
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It Smells Like Chlorine
In addition to sulfur, chlorine has a pretty distinctive smell that you cannot miss! If you end up smelling chlorine in your drinking water, it isn’t safe to drink. Chlorine is a chemical that is used to disinfect water. However, having too much of it present in a water supply is an easy way of severely impacting your health, specifically your gastrointestinal system. This could directly affect your intestines and may even result in various life-threatening diseases.
To summarize: if you end up smelling chlorine in your supply of drinking water, stay far away from it!
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It Has Changed the Color
Another easy way of spotting whether or not you are drinking contaminated water is the color. As we’ve mentioned, contaminated water may appear to be cloudy at first glance. But it may also take on an orange or brown hue. If it does, you know that something is wrong!
In fact, water that presents itself as either of these colors is often an immediate sign that a considerable amount of manganese or iron is present in your water supply. Again, this discoloration is most commonly caused by rusty water pipes. However, it may also be caused by excavation or mining that takes place near a water supply. If you notice either of these colors, stop drinking immediately and report the contaminated water supply. It must be tested in a lab before you resume drinking it.
Summary
These are some of the most prominent signs that you are drinking contaminated water. Remember: if you start to notice anything unusual about the appearance or taste of your water, it’s best to trust your gut and stop drinking it immediately. If you don’t, you could be putting your health at serious risk!
