Water treatment is essential for purifying water and ensuring nothing is amiss with the quality or the texture. While you may think about the purity of your water infrequently, it’s an essential resource for your insurance agency.
Water Treatment Facts to Know
Where does the office’s drinking water come from, and who ensures its quality? Learn about your agency’s source with these five facts about water treatment.
The Water Treatment Process Has Five Steps
Every water treatment program differs slightly based on containment concerns and processing plant location. The five steps which are most common include coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, and disinfection.
Some consumers further process the water on their end. For example, your building may have a filtration system, or you may use a refillable dispenser.
Clean Water Saves Lives
Water from natural sources often contains microorganisms that can make people sick. Furthermore, these things can include bacteria, parasites, and viruses.
The most common complaints are diarrhea and gastroenteritis, which can be dangerous if individuals don’t seek medical treatment. Unmanaged, these conditions can cause kidney failure, dehydration, and even death.
Natural sources may also contain toxic compounds such as arsenic, lead, chromium, and fluoride.
In large amounts, these elements can cause death, congenital disabilities, neurological issues, and cancer. Children and pregnant people are especially vulnerable, as contaminated water can affect childhood and fetal development.
Treating Water Protects the Environment
Used water doesn’t go away — it just changes form. Unfortunately, passing through human systems can contaminate water in new ways.
As you probably know, water treatment insurance helps companies manage risks associated with limited supply and pollution, but who protects the environment from these effects? The answer is post-consumer water treatment plants.
These programs remove harmful chemicals before the water re-enters the local environment. This resource touches ecosystems at every level, so clean water is essential for plentiful fish, thriving plant life, healthy birds, and uncontaminated rain.
The Environmental Protection Agency Sets Quality Standards
Overseeing water quality is a multi-government effort complicated by designated use and varying risk factors. For example, the state is in charge of water quality for bodies of water in state parks, while a city is responsible for maintaining the local drinking water supply.
However, the EPA, a federal agency dedicated to protecting the environment on behalf of the American people, oversees the creation and adherence to these differing laws. Regarding drinking water, supervising bodies must meet or exceed EPA regulations, which name and limit specific contaminants.
Water Treatment Has Positive Societal Effects
The previous water treatment facts focused on physical health, but did you know that clean water positively affects society? A reliable, accessible supply means individuals don’t have to devote labor to collection and purification, burdens that broadly fall on children and women. When the most vulnerable members of society have the time and energy to pursue education and entrepreneurial efforts, they can experience more excellent economic stability, better access to healthcare, and more power to affect change in their communities.
Accessible water also contributes to economic growth, as many industries require large amounts of this resource. Thus, it helps agriculture, manufacturing, and power generation.
Water treatment turns wastewater into a usable source, alleviating the strain of demand. Processing plants also give municipalities more control over supply, allowing them to manage their resources more effectively.
About Watercolor Management
Watercolor Management has insured the water industry for over 30 years. Our policies include unlimited defense cost coverage in the event of a lawsuit against you. Call us at (855) 929-0824 or email info@watercolormanagement.com for a quick quote for your Water Business Professional, Products/Completed operations, Pollution and General Liability Insurance.