AUSTIN (KXAN) — National Water Quality Awareness Month is a time to take a moment and learn all the misconceptions about hard water and the importance of safeguarding water resources.
This August, Texas Water Utilities wants the community to learn how important it is to have clean water for individual and community use. Not only do you utilize clean water for personal use daily, but pets, agriculture and the environment also rely on it.
Austenites are no strangers to hard water, which is often judged as being bad or harmful.
What is hard water?
According to the United States Geological Survey, hard water is just water with dissolved Calcium and Magnesium. Carly Peach, Hydrogeologist for TWU said “Statewide, Texas is ranked sixth in the nation for being the state with the most water hardness”. Texas’s average state water hardness is 200 milligrams per liter, which falls within the very hard category.
Why is water hard?
Water becomes hard water when it moves through the rocks underground and picks up minerals on its way into our aquafers. Peach said, “Texans receive water from a lot of sources, we have surface water including lakes, rivers and reservoirs. A lot of our water comes from underground aquifers.”
Is hard water safe?
There are many misconceptions about hard water the most common one is that it is bad for your health, Peach said this is false. TWU much like all other water utilities are held to statewide drinking water standards. This means each water utility is required to submit the results of their water quality testing and they must use only certified labs.
“It is completely natural. It can be kind of a pain in your daily use, we see that scale build-up on appliances and in our bathtubs but it is not harmful to health,” said Peach.
What are the benefits of hard water?
The main benefit that comes with hard water is the minerals that make it up. Calcium and Magnesium are substances that the body needs to function properly. “These minerals are very beneficial to our health, people take calcium and magnesium supplements to make up for what they don’t get in their diets.”
Conserving water
Water conservation is key, all it takes is creating healthy habits to work together and help conserve water on the planet. “Checking your sprinkler system, using zero scaping and turning off the water when you’re brushing your teeth or shaving. Conservation is going to help provide a higher standard of water for all of us,” said Peach.
This Water Quality Awareness Month, remember that it is those little individual actions that we all make every day that add up to create a bigger effect.