Contaminant Classes
There have been many water quality issues over the years and some governmental action has been taken to combat those issues. The USEPA currently regulates drinking water quality. In 1974 the Safe Drinking Water Act was put into place. The USEPA develops and enforces tap water standards for municipalities. It requires testing for over 90 different possible contaminants in our water to make sure that they are at acceptable levels to help prevent water borne illness. These are called MCLs or Maximum Contaminant Levels.

However, there are potential sources of recontamination once the water has been tested and approved at the treatment facility. It can travel through antiquated water mains and lines and older plumbing systems in the office or home. And, of course, there are weather-related problems, such as tornadoes and flash floods that can contaminate the water supply. There are also spills of pesticides and herbicides and animal wastes that can find their way into the water system.

Even though the USEPA does require testing for 90 different contaminants, there are over 2,100 potential threats to our drinking water. These break out into 4 different categories ... microbiological, inorganic, organic and radioactive.

	Microbiological contaminants include viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and parasites including E. coli, Cryptosporidium, Salmonella and Giardia. These are the types of contaminants that can give you gastrointestinal illness like the flu. The America Journal of Public Health states that 35 percent of all reported gastrointestinal illnesses are water-related and preventable.
	Inorganic contaminants are toxic chemicals, minerals, and metals including chlorine, asbestos, selenium, mercury, hardness minerals, arsenic, barium, nitrates, copper, and lead.
	Organic contaminants are the synthetic chemicals like pesticides, herbicides and industrial solvents.
	There are also radioactive contaminants like plutonium, radium and radon.

As you can see, there are many potential pollutants that we need to be aware of. innowave systems vary in their ability to reduce each of these classes of contaminants dependent on the treatment technologies used by the system. To see how each system measures up, refer to innowave's technology comparison chart.