Creative Water Filter Solutions

Chemical-Free Pools and Spas

• Chlorine is used to keep your pool or spa free of bacteria, but the biofilm that provides bacteria a safe environment to thrive in absorbs chlorine and is resistant to most pool and spa chemicals. This makes it necessary to use even more chemicals to control the bacteria that reproduce within the biofilm. A company in Minnesota called Creative Water Solutions has developed a water filtration solution that enables you to filter out harmful biofilm without filling your pool with chemicals. Sphagnum moss, which attacks biofilm, provides a natural way to keep your pool water clean. The filtration system works similar to a tea bag. Dried sterilized sphagnum moss is placed in mesh bags for use in filtering biofilm from your pool or spa.

Clay and Manure

• When disasters such as hurricanes or flooding strikes, clean water is often the one thing people don’t have. A master potter and scientist named Tony Flynn created a simple filtration system that uses materials you can find almost anywhere, even when disaster strikes. This water filter is made with clay, organic materials such as coffee grinds, tea leaves or rice, water and manure. The organic materials used in the pot are burned away during the firing, which involves setting the pot on a straw lined mound of manure. Clay filters can make a liter of drinkable water in less than two hours. Although these filters aren’t suitable for large water-filtration applications, they’re cheap, environmentally friendly and Planet Green reports that they’re used in countries such as Ghana and Cambodia to provide clean drinking water.

UV Filtration System

• Solar water disinfection, otherwise known as the SODIS method, utilizes the sun’s UV rays to disinfect drinking water. The method is simple, placing contaminated water in PET, or polyethylene terephthalate bottles, and leaving them in direct sunlight for six hours or 12 hours in intermittent sunlight. On cloudy days, effective filtration requires two consecutive days of exposure. The sun’s UV radiation kills off the pathogens. The filtration system is easy enough that anyone can do it, but it is important that the material that the bottle is made from won’t affect the filtration. PET bottles are ideal because they’re clear and will not break easily. Clear glass bottles or bags made from PET also can be used. The bottles must be clear and colorless and hold no more than 3 liters of water. Although PET bottles may have a bluish tint, this isn’t an issue, according to SODIS. Bottles that are scratched or damaged cannot be used.

Testing UV Filtered Water

• Because of concerns that PET bottles and sunlight can’t effectively filter pathogens from water, students at the University of Washington who were also responsible for devising the SODIS method, created a device to test and confirm that the water is safe to drink. This device, called PotaVida, is a solar-powered electronic indicator that provides clear visual indication that the water is clean. It measures the exposure of the water to sunlight, and lets you know when it has had enough exposure to be safe to drink.