Rainwater tanks 'full of lead and aluminium'

[hanabi]

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23534534-2,00.html

By Siobhain Ryan
April 14, 2008 01:19am

RAINWATER tanks have been found to be commonly contaminated with lead and other heavy metals, a study to be presented this week has found.

[Nyree]

It would be nice to know the differences between tank types, too - galv, aquaplate, PE, FRP, concrete. I tried to find info recently as the plumbers that DH manages said the same thing about lead levels, but more in regards to lead in the welding of the metal tanks. Not a lot out there - just that galv tanks tend to have more of a metallic taste; aquaplate lining can be easily damaged, rendering it useless; and there are questions about the safety of storing water in plastic, let alone the environmental issue of them not breaking down once they've reached the end of their water storage life (about 20 years).

Moral of the story....if you have a tank, get a good filter, pref reverse osmosis, to remove the heavy metals. We're on 100% tank water here (galv), but when we move, we'll have mains water, but will have tanks, too. I'd still rather drink filtered tank water than filtered town water. Ultimately, I'd like a whole house filter to get rid of the chlorine before it hits the hot water system. Chlorine gas in hot water can be just as detrimental as heavy metals in drinking water.

[lrning2b]

Originally Posted by Nyree

Chlorine gas in hot water can be just as detrimental as heavy metals in drinking water.

This is something I didn't know, but it makes sense. I am on town water, but we have poly tanks. We filter rainwater for drinking and cooking. Living near coal mines and refineries we change or clean the filter when it turns black from coal soot. I hate to think of what we would be drinking without it being filtered. Lead would be a major ingredient along with mercury and plutonium....

Oh, I can't wait to move one day! I wonder if a real terracotta tile roof would improve the situation by working as a natural filter?

[miowow-wow]

interesting thread.

We have 9 tanks altogether. Two concrete, six plastic and one metal. We have a RO filter for our drinking tap at the kitchen sink (you know one of those skinny ones rather than a regular tap/spout that is on the side in addition to the regular taps) I often drink water that hasn't been through RO though.

I'd rather drink rainwater any day than town water. However, my gut feeling is that the rainwater out of our concrete tanks is better than that out of our plastic tanks. Fortunately we can switch between them easily. When we are in Canberra I almost faint at the smell of the chlorine in the shower. We used to have a filter for the shower at our Canberra place but can't get the replacement filters anymore. We also take those 10L esky urn things of rainwater when we go to Canberra so we can drink rainwater. If we run out or forget, my water intake goes from 3L a day to almost zilch. Very bad. We only have a Brita jug filter in Canberra for when we forget. It does improve the taste but not enough.

We also have river water here, but it is only used for toilet flushing (I'd love to have it plumbed for shower, washing machine and dishwasher too though but too exy with plumbing in the slab). Very occasionally I do drink the river water.
Usually by accident if I fill my water bottle up at a tap outside without thinking. The taste is very similar to the rainwater. According to NSW Dept Water and Energy, it is the 8th cleanest river in Australia. Not saying there is nothing bad in it, but I'd still drink the river water over town water. Although only the river here, I would have to do my research on other rivers before drinking.

[miowow-wow]

interesting point about the roof material affecting water too.

A natural real terra roof would be great. Any thoughts on difference between a regular tiled roof and a colourbond one?

[hanabi]

Ours is a colorbond roof, which flows into plastic tanks under the house - so in eternal shade and never exposed to UV light. I don't think there'd be any great difference between a colourbond roof and a terracotta one - the water isn't in contact with the surface for very long. We haven't tested our water recently so I can't offer any confirmation about what is better. We have a lot of birds and bats here and I have no doubt that some of their excrement ends up in our water tanks. We have nothing more than a sand filter for our drinking water, but the water tastes great to me and much more 'alive' than when we used a charcoal filter for our Durand water filter in town.

We also have metal tanks, which are in full sun, and which tend to get a bit slimy. I prefer the taste of the water from the plastic tanks. The water from the galvanised iron tanks definitely has a metallic taste to it IMO.

[BLUE]

our gal tank split when we moved it to build so we are thinking of getting a price on a stainless steel tank, we would only get a small one, just enough to keep us in drinking water as we will be putting large tanks on another roof for garden and household puposes.

[acumama]

I'll be interested to see where the data has come from... ie, urban water collection vs rural vs industrial areas. We are in the rainforest with no mains water, i bloody hope our heavy metal levels aren't that high cos it's our only choice (we have 30 000 lt concrete and the same size poly, I really didn't want the poly, just a feeling more than anything) I tried asking all the sales reps, they gave me blank stares when I told them I was concerned about the plastic gassing off and dumping oestrogen-like compounds in the water, never considered the heavy metals too much til now.

[la]

Wow, i never even considered all these factors With a country seachange at the end of this year, we may well have tanks, where do you get your water tested?

Originally Posted by Nyree

I tried to find info recently as the plumbers that DH manages said the same thing about lead levels, but more in regards to lead in the welding of the metal tanks.

DH manages a plumbing supply store, i might get him to sound out some of their plumbers on this one. i'm curious to know the level of awareness over here. tanks in the metro area are starting to take off as people become more enviro conscious.

[Nyree]

we are thinking of getting a price on a stainless steel tank

Indicative pricing:

http://www.nicholtanks.com.au/tanks.php
http://www.stainlessrainwatertanks.com/sizes.asp

I'd love SS, too