The author served from 2000-2010 as CEO of SCWA

Recently, my Instagram feed has been dominated, almost daily, by a company that sells whole-house water filtration systems. The company is telling me that there are “dangerous and toxic chemicals in my drinking water supply.”

That is actually a true statement.

In all of Suffolk County and most of Nassau County, we live over our water supply. No drinking water is supplied to us from upstate, nor from any saltwater bodies surrounding Long Island. One hundred percent of our fresh water supply comes from beneath our neighborhoods, industrial parks, shopping and office parks, and open spaces.

Notice I keep using the word “supply,” as in drinking water supply. For those of us plugged in to a public water supplier, such as the Suffolk County Water Authority, there is a vast difference between raw, untreated fresh water supply sources and filtered public water, supplied to customers.

The difference is that public water suppliers must meet rigid federal and state drinking water standards, for the product they are selling to customers. This compliance with standards requires massive expenditures for treatment and filtration equipment to improve, for human consumption, the water pumped out of the ground. Suppliers are also required to tell their customers, every year, what is in the untreated water and what is in the filtered water they are drinking.

Recently, for example, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adopted a drinking water standard of four parts per trillion for PFOS (non-stick) chemicals. Let’s just say that’s a pretty small amount, so these manufactured chemicals must be pretty nasty, even though, as applied coatings, they make it easier to wash our pots and pans.

So, back to my corporate friends on Instagram trying to sell me an expensive, in-home water treatment system. These systems are expensive to buy and expensive to maintain. Even the smallest pitcher filter has to be changed every two months to maintain its effectiveness.

In fairness to the company trying to sell me on their product, they are starting with a water test. I don’t know what they are testing for, but potential buyers, who do not know the water treatment process required of their public supplier, might be understandably concerned when reading the large ad headlines.

We are very fortunate here in Suffolk County to have aggressive oversight, going back many decades. There is a vigilance of our drinking water source below us, bolstered by taxpayer-funded programs to plan for future water supplies. Voters will be asked this November to deepen the funding commitment to clean up existing sources and supplies. Very few Suffolk County residents are still using private wells to provide for their drinking water. Many get connected to public supply every year, reducing the number of families who have to look out for themselves, closely monitor the water they are drinking, and perhaps be the ones to buy a whole house treatment system.

So: Should we be fearful about the water we are drinking? All of us must answer that question for ourselves. But “Let the Buyer Beware.” If you are on a public water supply, you already have some safeguards. Perhaps some peace of mind can be found in an annual water quality statement, available online from your public water supplier. This report is far less expensive than buying a possibly needless, fancy in-home filtration system.