Drinking Water Issues

Canada has the one of the world’s largest reserves of freshwater. In fact, almost 9% of Canada’s total area is covered by freshwater. The Great Lakes region alone contains approximately 18% of all the world’s fresh surface water. The Canadian portion of the Great Lakes...

Why do you need filtration? Water touches many areas within foodservice, including coffee and espresso brewing, fountain beverages, iced tea brewing, ice making, steam cooking, soups, sauces and reductions, food rinsing, warewashing, and of course, drinking water. Without quality water, all of these can be...

Volatile Organic compounds, or VOC’s, are a group of water contaminants that can be very dangerous if found in drinking water at unsafe levels.  VOC's are among the most costly water contaminants to detect, and difficult and expensive for municipal water systems to remove. There...

Turbidity is a water quality term that refers to the cloudy appearance of water, caused by particles or “suspended matter”. There are many types of particles that may be present in water, some of which are large enough to be seen and some are not.  Turbid...

Bacteria in Drinking Water: Bacteria are the most numerous organisms on the planet.  There are literally millions of different types of bacteria.  They are one-celled organisms and are present in everything from water to food, and on objects, we touch every day.  What’s ironic about...

Nearly everyone is aware of the health hazards of inhaling asbestos fibres from ceiling tiles and insulation. But asbestos found in drinking water also can be hazardous to your health. It can enter the human body by being inhaled and by being ingested through food...

Heavy metals in water refer to heavy, dense, metallic elements that occur in trace levels, but are very toxic and tend to accumulate. Most heavy metals are too rarely found in water to justify government regulation, but a few have been given an MCL (Maximum Contaminant...

Nitrates (NO3-) and nitrites (NO2-) are chemical compounds that consist of nitrogen and oxygen. These compounds readily dissolve in water and have no taste or odour. Nitrate compounds are commonly used in fertilizers, food preservatives, and chemical oxidants. A small portion of nitrate compounds is...

Particles drinking water: Although water may appear to be clear, it always contains many microscopic particles, some of which can make water taste funny and even be dangerous to your health.  There are many types of particles, and the tiniest sub-micron sized particles may number...