While manufacturers and advertisers use various terms to describe water treatment equipment, it is important to recognize that such systems are designed to target specific physical, chemical, biological, or radiological contaminants based on their individual capabilities.
Within the water treatment industry, the interchangeable use of terminology to describe equipment and treatment standards often creates misleading perceptions regarding the water's suitability for consumption or use. Consequently, consumers may be left with an inaccurate or poorly defined understanding of a system's actual treatment capabilities, potentially leading to misaligned expectations and improper application. To further explore how water quality and appearance are perceived, it is paramount to understand the specific definitions of "clean," "safe," "potable," and "pure," as these terms are frequently used as descriptors for both the actual safety and the subjective perception of treated water.
|
Term |
Generally Accepted Meaning |
Consumer Perception |
|
Clean |
Water free from dirt, pollution, or harmful substances, making it safe and often suitable for drinking (potable), pure, and clear, as in "clean water" or "clearing the water by filtering" |
Often mistaken for being safe to drink, though it may still contain invisible pathogens or contaminants. |
|
Safe |
Water that is free from fecal contamination, harmful chemicals, and pathogens, is consistently available on premises, and meets national standards which doesn't pose significant health risks. |
Implies the absence of harmful bacteria, viruses, and toxic chemicals. |
|
Potable |
Water that is safe to drink. Water is considered safe to drink when it meets the guidelines set out in Health Canada's document Guidelines for Canadians Drinking Water Quality Summary Table. This includes microbiological, chemical, physical, and radiological parameters. |
Usually refers to "tap water" that is in compliance with municipal or federal health guidelines. |
|
Pure |
Water that has been processed (often via reverse osmosis or distillation) to remove virtually all dissolved solids, minerals, and impurities. |
Often perceived as the "highest" quality and determined to be safe for consumption. |
Ultraviolet (UV) Disinfection Systems
In the ultraviolet disinfection industry, the terms "clean" and "safe" are frequently employed across various manufacturers as generic descriptors of a UV system's capabilities without referencing any specific performance standards or brand-specific metrics. Specifically, the phrase “safe, clean water” implies that a UV disinfection system provides a comprehensive guarantee of both the biological safety and the aesthetic quality of the water being treated. While UV disinfection systems are highly effective at neutralizing microbiological threats, the term "safe, clean water" can be misleading because UV light primarily addresses biological safety without removing physical particles or chemical contaminants that pose health risks or affect clarity and taste.
Potable water refers to water that is safe for human consumption. Water achieves this classification when it is in compliance with health-based standards established by municipal, state/provincial, and federal regulatory bodies within specific regional jurisdictions. These guidelines encompass a comprehensive evaluation of water quality, including microbiological, chemical, physical, and radiological water-quality parameters. Although UV systems are frequently advertised as providers of safe water, the technology is strictly limited to microbiological inactivation and lacks the capability to physically remove any particulate or chemical contaminants from the water supply.
While advertising the production of "safe, clean water" is not entirely inaccurate, it is important to note that microbiological inactivation is merely one essential component of the treatment process and does not address the chemical, physical, or radiological contaminants necessary to achieve comprehensive drinking water safety. To achieve truly safe drinking water, a multi-barrier approach is required because no single technology can address every class of contaminant; therefore, while UV systems provide a critical defense against biological threats, they must be integrated with physical and chemical filtration stages to ensure the water is also free from harmful chemicals, heavy metals, and suspended solids.
This scenario is frequently illustrated by the misapplication of ultraviolet (UV) systems in drilled wells, where units are often installed without the water testing required to ensure quality meets the manufacturer’s operating specifications. While installing a sediment filter housing alongside a UV system is commonplace in rural locations, elevated water hardness and iron levels can foul the quartz sleeve and impede disinfection capabilities. This degradation often occurs without warnings, alarms, or indicators, leaving consumers completely unaware that their water quality may be at risk.
To ensure proper protection, additional treatment devices are frequently required to address hardness, iron, sulfur, tannins, or other contaminants prior to the UV stage. I have observed this oversight repeatedly, highlighting a significant gap in consumer awareness regarding the technical requirements of safe water treatment.
Treating Water
In technical and regulatory terms, water treatment is defined as any process including physical, chemical, or biological methods that improves the quality of water to make it appropriate for a specific end-use, such as drinking, industrial processes, or discharging to the environment. Broadly defined, water treatment devices are engineered to address either individual or specific groups of contaminants based on their unique technological capabilities and performance specifications.
Claiming that water is "treated" does not inherently guarantee comprehensive safety, as the term refers specifically to the removal or inactivation of only those contaminants that the selected equipment is engineered to address. Despite the technical limitations of specific equipment, the general consumer perception is that "treated water" is synonymous with being clean and safe.
Purification
In the context of water treatment, purification refers to the process of removing undesirable chemicals, biological contaminants, suspended solids, and gases from water. The ultimate goal is to produce water that is "pure" enough for a specific purpose, most commonly human consumption (potable water), but also for medical, pharmacological, or industrial applications. Common purification technologies include filtration, disinfection, adsorption, and reverse osmosis; however, the term "purified water" is frequently applied to water treated by only a single device.
This can be misleading, as water may be filtered for sediment and labeled as purified while still containing undetected contaminants such as PFAS, lead, nitrates, pharmaceuticals, arsenic, or microplastics. Without comprehensive testing and a multi-stage approach, the label of "purified" does not guarantee the removal of all health-related risks.
Compliant
To ensure compliance with the provision of potable water, municipal, provincial, and federal regulations strictly outline the comprehensive list of contaminants that must be monitored or treated to meet specific water quality standards. While thousands of substances can technically be classified as contaminants, federal and provincial regulations focus on a core list of approximately 90 to 100 primary health-related substances, though research continues on hundreds of other unregulated candidates to ensure that the standards for potable water evolve alongside our understanding of chemical and radiological risks.
Beyond the established regulatory frameworks, numerous unregulated contaminants have been identified that pose significant health risks when present in a water supply at elevated concentrations, further complicating the definition of truly safe water. While maintaining regulatory compliance defines and gives perception of the water as potable, it does not guarantee absolute safety, as accepted water supplies may still contain various unregulated and undetected contaminants that pose health risks.
Adding to the complexity of water safety is the fact that even properly regulated treated water can pick up new contaminants as it travels from the treatment plant through aging underground distribution networks and building plumbing before reaching the consumer. Although water may leave a treatment plant in full regulatory compliance, its nature as a universal solvent allows it to accumulate contaminants from the distribution system, potentially rendering it unsafe for consumption by the time it reaches the tap. The common perception of water safety is predicated on the delivery of a supply that remains in strict adherence to established government regulations and full legal compliance.
Making the Claim
In conclusion, when advertising or referring to water as clean, safe, potable, pure, treated, or compliant, it is imperative that the source water be properly tested through a scientifically validated sequence of equipment to ensure these claims are met. Because water quality is dynamic and varies significantly by source, a "one-size-fits-all" approach to treatment is insufficient. Relying on single-stage devices without addressing the specific chemical and biological profile of the water such as hardness, mineral content, or emerging contaminants compromises the efficacy of the entire system.
When equipment is advertised as "clean," "safe," or "pure," those labels must match exactly what the equipment is designed to do or it can lead to a false sense of water quality security. Many people assume a single piece of equipment makes any water perfectly safe, but the truth is that the final quality depends largely on the quality of the water coming in and what the equipment can treat.
