We are thankful for our families, friends, and our customers.
You make us who we are!
Thanks to our employees for your tireless effort to give our clients the best!
Thanks to our wonderful suppliers and your hard work to provide us with the tools we need to serve our customers!
Happy Thanksgiving!
NSF began in November 1944, when two professors from the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, and a public health official from Toledo, OH, saw a need to standardize the health requirements for commercial foodservice equipment.
Since that time, NSF has developed more than 72 American National Standards to protect food and water, dietary supplements, pools and spas, and consumer goods. NSF also tests and certifies a variety of products including water filters, pool and spa equipment, plastic and plumbing products, foodservice equipment, organic foods, nutritional ingredients, home appliances, kitchen utensils, green building materials and more.
The NSF Water Treatment and Distribution Systems Program verifies drinking water treatment chemicals and drinking water system components to ensure these products do not contribute contaminants to drinking water that could cause adverse health effects.
Through a comprehensive consensus process, the NSF Joint Committee on Drinking Water Treatment Units has developed key standards for evaluation and certification of drinking water treatment units. These include:
NSF/ANSI Standard 42: Drinking Water Treatment Units – Aesthetic Effects
Overview: This standard covers point-of-use (POU) and point-of-entry (POE) systems designed to reduce specific aesthetic or non-health-related contaminants (chlorine, taste and odor, and particulates) that may be present in public or private drinking water.
NSF/ANSI Standard 53: Drinking Water Treatment Units – Health Effects
Overview: Standard 53 addresses point-of-use (POU) and point-of-entry (POE) systems designed to reduce specific health-related contaminants, such as Cryptosporidium, Giardia, lead, volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether), that may be present in public or private drinking water.
NSF/ANSI Standard 58: Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water Treatment Systems
Overview: This standard was developed for point-of-use (POU) reverse osmosis (RO) treatment systems. These systems typically consist of a pre-filter, RO membrane, and post-filter. Standard 58 includes contaminant reduction claims commonly treated using RO, including fluoride, hexavalent and trivalent chromium, total dissolved solids, nitrates, etc. that may be present in public or private drinking water.
NSF/ANSI Standard 44: Cation Exchange Water Softeners
Overview: This standard covers residential cation exchange water softeners designed to reduce hardness from public or private water supplies. Additionally, this standard can verify the system’s ability to reduce radium and barium.
NSF/ANSI Standard 55: Ultraviolet Microbiological Water Treatment Systems
Overview: This standard establishes requirements for point-of-use (POU) and point-of-entry (POE) non-public water supply (non-PWS) ultraviolet systems and includes two optional classifications. Class A systems (40,000 uwsec/cm2) are designed to disinfect and/or remove microorganisms from contaminated water, including bacteria and viruses, to a safe level. Class B systems (16,000 uw-sec/cm2) are designed for supplemental bactericidal treatment of public drinking water or other drinking water, which has been deemed acceptable by a local health agency.
NSF/ANSI Standard 62: Drinking Water Distillation Systems
Overview: Standard 62 covers distillation systems designed to reduce specific contaminants, including total arsenic, chromium, mercury, nitrate/nitrite, and microorganisms from public and private water supplies.
NSF Protocol P231: Microbiological Water Purifiers
Overview: Protocol P231 addresses systems that use chemical, mechanical, and/or physical technologies to filter and treat waters of unknown microbiological quality, but that are presumed to be potable.
October 2009
Deephaven, MN is a city that is well known for having poor water quality. Private well owners constantly battle with high levels of iron, hydrogen sulfide, water hardness, and even arsenic.
Old Iron Filter System
We first serviced our clients in 2007 by replacing an old softener with a new high efficiency Hague WaterMax softener. This system improved water pressure and used 70% less salt than their old Fleck water softener.
The existing 10” x 47” iron filter was in bad shape, and had been partially disabled by other sub contractors over the years. At the homeowner’s request, we re-built the control head and added a new air relief valve to try and get this system to “limp along”.
By October, 2009 the old iron filter was failing again. The rust stains and rotten egg smell were starting to take it’s toll on the plumbing, water softener AND the homeowner. It was time for a real iron filter system:
“We just COULD NOT get the iron and odor filtered out of the water for a constant, clean water supply. We wanted water that was always clean, odor-free and soft. We wanted a solution that would work.”
Why the Previous Iron Filter System Failed:
New Iron Filter System
The Premier Water Solution:
The old ¾” copper was replaced with new 1” copper for less restriction and improved backwashing (cleaning) ability. We used a Hellenbrand Iron Curtain system with a 13”x54” dedicated aeration tank was used to pre-treat the water and oxidize the iron and hydrogen sulfide for better filtration. A 13”x54” vessel using vertical depth filtration replaced the small 10” filter to handle heavier water flow rate needs up to 8gpm.
A special distributor was also used to reduce waste water by 30% over the old system. A digital controller runs the system and holds all settings up to 2 ½ years during power loss to combat the frequent power outages here.
The new system completely eliminated the rust stains and odor problems, the softener now works more efficiently, and waste water was reduced. The results speak for themselves:
My freshly washed clothes now smell like a clean fresh load of laundry. Brushing my teeth is no longer a gross experience with smelly water.
Your staff worked very hard to solve our water issues, and truly care about customer satisfaction.
Initial Results:
System Flow Rate: 2.7gpm
Iron Bleed-Through: 6ppm*
Final Results:
System Flow Rate: 8.0gpm
Iron Bleed-Through: 0ppm*
*0.3ppm is the iron limit before staining begins
There has been quite a bit of press about the poor quality of water that Burnsville residents have been dealing with.
We installed a Hague RO3500 reverse osmosis system for a client several months ago – before the water quality problems were being highly publicized.
Our clients receive a free quality control check after installation as part of our routine service. During our review our client said:
“We are only drinking the water from our system, and have not noticed the bad taste everyone else is talking about.”
The Hague RO3500 was a good choice for this application because of the special “Prolonged Contact Filter” that improves adsorption of organic matter. This filter combined with an NSF certified membrane provide a nice alternative to smelly, distasteful tap water. Read more about the Hague Reverse Osmosis System.
The staff at Premier Water would like to thank all of our friends, family members, and every other veteran for serving our country. You make this country great!
In September, 2009 the EPA released its third update to the “contaminant candidate list” (CCL 3). This is a list of substances which are not currently regulated in drinking water by the federal government but may be considered for future regulation.
The EPA and other stakeholders looked at 7,500 substances before coming up with the final list of 116 contaminants. After the EPA drew up a preliminary list, it added 10 pharmaceuticals, 1 antibiotic and 9 hormones, 2 disinfection byproducts, 5 microbes and firefighting foam. The full CCL 3 list of contaminants can be found at this EPA Web site: www.epa.gov/safewater/ccl
Many of these substances that appeared on CCL 1 in 1998 have been “rolled over” into CCL 2 and now CCL 3 — an indication that they’re still considered potentially harmful. Examples of some that appear on the new CCL 3 and were also on prior lists are adenoviruses (viruses that can cause respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses), acetochlor (a weed-control herbicide), vanadium (a natural element), and cyanotoxins (produced by blue-green algae).
The Water Quality Association (WQA) recently proposed that removal/reduction of the following 17 substances, some of which are endocrine-disrupting chemicals, pharmaceuticals, or personal care products, could be priorities for developing new NSF/ANSI performance standards for drinking water treatment units. None of these are now regulated:
Atenolol: Beta blocker (heart) medication
Bisphenol A (BPA): Ingredient in plastic/EDC
Carbamazepine: Anti-seizure medication
DEET: Insecticide
Diazinon: Insecticide/EDC
Estrone: Steroid (estrogen hormone)
Ibuprofin: Pain medication
Linuron: Herbicide/EDC
Meprobamate: Anti-anxiety medication
Metolachlor: Pesticide
Naproxen: Pain medication
Nonyl phenol: Surfactant (cleaning compound)/EDC
Phenytoin: Anti-convulsant medication
Risperidone: Schizophrenia treatment
TCEP: Flame retardant
TCPP: Flame retardant
Trimethoprim: Antibiotic
Future Role of the Water Treatment Industry
The water treatment industry “can offer the most advanced technologies available for dealing with endocrine-disrupting, pharmaceutical and personal care product residues in drinking water,” says Joe Harrison, technical director of the Water Quality Association (WQA). “We welcome the EPA benchmarks to guide our product development and performances in this new emerging area.”
Harrison says there’s no single POU/POE technology that can address all emerging contaminants. He says, “It appears that reverse osmosis (RO), activated carbon blocks, and advanced oxidation, such as is achieved by combining in various degrees hydrogen peroxide, ultraviolet light and/or ozone … may show effectiveness in treating many of these.”
Premier Water Technology has been dealing with problem water applications since 1978. As water quality continues to change, we are prepared to face the new challenges that lie ahead. We have a proven track record with known contaminants like Arsenic and Coliform Bacteria. It’s strange to think we will someday offer water treatment solutions for anxiety medications, hormones, and flame retardants.
