Drugs in Drinking Water a Concern for RVers?

The widely discussed Associated Press news report concerning the finding of traces of prescription drugs in drinking water has set many to wondering: Just how safe is it to drink the water? To say, “The results aren’t in,” is to understate the matter. This much is known, however: If 24-million ‘fixed location’ Americans are at risk of drinking ‘contaminated’ water, then RVers who visit various spots about the country–many of which aren’t tested–could too, wind up drinking a brew of unknown quality.

That RVers are a “mark” for drinking water filter salesmen is a given. Just visit any RV rally where vendors gather and you’re sure to come away with enough literature (and associated hype) to wallpaper your kitchen, bath, and bedroom with advertisements that will make you swear off tap water for the balance of your life. Should we all switch to bottled water?

Where does the bottler get the water? Many of those expensive H-2-Owes come straight out of a municipal water tap and are pumped, without ceremony, into those ubiquitous plastic bottles. Sure, the bottler may add a few minerals to make it taste better, but as far as processes that will remove the threat of pharmaceutical contamination, not many doing it. You can be sure that those who do will soon trumpet the fact loudly.

What’s an RVer to do? According to an ABC News report, only “one technology, reverse osmosis, removes virtually all pharmaceutical contaminants.” Well that sounds pretty good, huh? But the practice is a little more murky.

RO systems (as they’re called) have a few drawbacks. First, because they use water pressure to operate, you’ll need to be someplace where you can stay hooked up to a city-water connection, best operating at 40 psi or more. As far as “boondockers” are concerned, just driving into a water station and pumping untreated water into your tank and hoping you’ll find an RO system that’ll treat it is a bit of a stretch.

Compounding the problem, like the saying goes, “It takes water to make water.” For every five gallons of purified drinking water, the typical RO system will “dump” 40 to 90 gallons of water down the drain. If you “filler up” at an RV park that uses a septic system, dumping that amount of “brine” as it’s called down the dump port could cause a lot of problems. Notwithstanding, it takes a while to process RO water; filling your tank could easily take over night.

Perhaps for RVers with concerns about their drinking water the most “practical” RO system is a countertop unit that allows for making RO by the glass full. You simply turn the unit on, stick your glass under the output, and the brine pumps down the kitchen sink drain through another opening. Other countertop units allow you to walk away from the system while it treats small amounts of water, with a bypass valve allowing you access to untreated water for washing, etc, while you wait.

One company that caters to RVers offers a countertop unit for a little over $100. But the RO filters themselves don’t last forever, and a replacement here runs $60. Some will easily feel this is cheap insurance against the hazards that drugs in the drinking water could do to the human body.

Fine print: The RO unit supplier listed is only an example; we weren’t paid to link to their product, nor do we know anything about the company’s reliability. Use good sense and caution when purchasing any water filter system. Photo: Butterflysha on flickr.com