Smart Inspector Science: Is That Water Safe to Drink?

Is that water safe to drink? Maybe? Has the water been tested? Are the sewers working properly? How does backflow protection separate the systems?

Home inspectors can help keep drinking water safe in the homes they inspect. Most have basic knowledge of modern municipal sewer systems and in-depth knowledge of modern residential drainage, waste and vent (DWV) systems. Inspectors understand water supply systems, municipal water supplies, backflow protection and some things about private well systems. But how were those systems developed and how do today’s communities provide safe drinking water?

Big Problems, Strong Odors
Throughout history, drinking water and human waste presented big problems wherever people congregated in large groups. From the earliest civilizations to about 1850, waste was put in chamber pots, outhouses and pits, used for fertilizer or just dumped in the woods. Human waste was not treated. Larger cities in advanced societies built sewer systems to flush waste into rivers or other nearby bodies of water. Dilution was the solution—these relatively small amounts of waste were diluted with lots of water and dumped downstream.

Drinking water often came from water contaminated with human waste. Several ancient societies developed basic sewage removal systems, but ultimately, they all just flushed the human waste into natural sources of water.

As cities grew larger, they had to deal with the stench and unsightliness of sewage, as well as the contamination of drinking water. Most cities took drinking water from the source they were polluting with their human waste or from wells next to their human waste dumps. In the United States during the 1850s, cities developed underground sewer piping to carry waste away. In combined sanitary and storm sewers, storm water helped flush away the waste from humans as well as domesticated horses and other animals. 

Because urban areas became so polluted and smelly, pumping systems were developed to add water to flush out the combined sewage dumped in rivers. In Milwaukee, WI, a steam-powered flushing system built in 1888 used Lake Michigan water to flush out the Milwaukee River (Photo 1). This system used a boiler, a steam turbine and a 12-foot-diameter pipe to pump 500 million gallons of lake water per day to flush out the Milwaukee River. In 1925, a modern electric motor replaced the steam engine and boilers. Photo 2 (on Page 16) shows the screw impeller and data related to the impeller performance. 

Polluted Drinking Water
In the mid-1850s, there was much debate about whether serious illnesses like cholera were caused by polluted air or water in major cities such as London, Paris, New York and Chicago. During years of debate, epidemics killed thousands. Eventually, doctors and public health scientists became convinced that drinking water polluted with human waste was causing the problem. 

Around 1870, London developed its now-famous sewer system to flush human waste into the ocean. Also, Chicago constructed a huge Sanitary and Ship Canal from the Chicago River to the Des Plaines River. This system of three canals, built between 1892 and 1922, reversed the flow of the Chicago River; instead of discharging into Lake Michigan, it now flowed into the Mississippi River— good luck, St. Louis and New Orleans. The canal-to-river system is still in use today, but now the sewage is treated. You may have read that this canal is a possible entry point for invasive Asian carp into the Great Lakes because it directly connects the Mississippi River with Lake Michigan (Photo 3). 

Cleanliness of drinking water could not be trusted in any large city. Europeans solved the problem by drinking beer and wine. Wealthy people, afraid to bathe in city water, left for “the country” with its clean water and air. Some historians think that fancy perfumes developed in Paris were an attempt to mask body odor from not bathing.

Treating Sewage or Drinking Water
In 1875, no city in the United States with a population of more than 100,000 provided any kind of sewage treatment. By 1900, only two cities had installed treatment facilities. By 1926, 20 cities had sewage treatment plants. As electricity, motors and pumps became widely available, many cities decided to treat sewage.

Chicago’s water was so polluted that cholera became a major issue. The planners of the Chicago World’s Fair (also known as the Columbian Exposition of 1893) worried that the spread of cholera would discourage visitors from attending the fair, which was held in downtown Chicago at the current site of the Museum of Science and Industry on Lake Michigan. Along with Chicago’s Director of Works, entrepreneurs attempted to build a 100-mile pipeline to bring natural spring water from Waukesha, WI, to the fairgrounds for drinking water. Apparently, unions and Waukesha residents stopped the pipeline construction. Eventually, water was piped from a spring south of Waukesha, brought in on railroad cars and sold at the fair for a huge profit (Photo 4). 

What Happens Next?
Scientists, governments, health officials and plumbers stepped in to save civilizations from their own water pollution. We continue to see changes made to water supplies and sewer systems, and they’re all for the better. Think about how bad it was in 1915, when raw human waste was dumped into rivers and lakes, polluting our drinking water. That was only 100 years ago. 

We should be proud of how much conditions have improved in our country. Home inspectors can help ensure homeowner safety if they understand sewer systems, cross-connections and drinking water treatment. We should also think about water problems in less-developed countries and when we’re there, we must be vigilant— don’t drink the water.

Like this information? Catch Tom Feiza’s detailed technical presentation, “Inspection and Development of Modern Plumbing and Sewer Systems,” at ASHI’s InspectionWorldTM in Las Vegas on Monday, January 23, 2017, 1-3 pm.

Tom Feiza has been a professional home inspector since 1992 and has a degree in engineering. Through HowToOperateYourHome.com, he provides high-quality marketing materials that help professional home inspectors boost their business. Copyright © 2016 by Tom Feiza,
Mr. Fix-It, Inc. Reproduced with permission.

Visit HowToOperateYourHome.com (or htoyh.com) for more information about building science, books, articles, marketing and illustrations for home inspectors. Contact Tom (email Tom@mister x-it.com, 262-303-4884) with questions and comments.