Detroit Office Water Cooler Service

Detroit Water Quality: Yesterday

The early settlers of Detroit chose its site at the narrowest point of the Detroit River because it was very navigable and good source of clean water. They developed a rudimentary distribution system whereby water was delivered daily by horse-drawn carts to its residents. However, as the city grew, this system was soon obsolete. City leaders hatched a plan to drill wells to supplement Detroit River water but came up dry. Attempts to create reservoirs to capture surface water also failed. The major metropolises of the east, like New York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, had solved their water problems by creating pumping systems to bring clean river water to their residents. In the 1840s, Detroit engineers constructed a similar system. However, the city was also dumping wastewater into the Detroit River. At the time, many city planners had the erroneous belief that micro-organisms that fed on impurities in the wastewater would purify it. Not until the early 1900s did scientists and Detroit city engineers recognize the link between wastewater and typhoid fever. In 1912, the U.S. Public Health Service issued a mandate that required Detroit to disinfect all distributed water with calcium hypochlorite. Calcium hypochlorite was replaced by liquid chlorine, a more effective disinfectant, in 1916. Detroit also constructed a new water intake point well away from the city’s wastewater dumping area. This was especially critical as the automotive industry began its explosive growth in the Detroit area.

Detroit Water Quality: Today

Detroit’s population grew so quickly that city planners had trouble installing enough water mains, leading the cast iron mains to be installed without a coherent plan, creating clusters of cast iron mains on top of each other in some sections of the city with other sections of the city without any mains at all! Older cast iron pipes, like the ones used in Detroit, are susceptible to corrosion and biofilm contamination from chemical reactions. Detroit works to combat this corrosion by adding orthophosphate to the water before it is distributed. Orthosphosphate has been shown to prevent the leaching of lead into drinking water. When Flint, MI switched from distributing Detroit water to Flint River water, Flint city officials failed to add orthophosphate before distributing the water and some believe this contributed to the dramatically high levels of lead in Flint drinking water. Even with orthosphosphate, chemical reactions can create clusters of pipe deterioration and bacteria along the inside of the pipe, resulting in “rotten egg” taste and smell. To combat this corrosion and bacteria growth, many municipalities, including Detroit, add high levels of chlorine, which has its own taste and smell issues.

Quench Water Coolers – A Better Drinking Water Solution in Detroit

No need to worry about what your office’s drinking water might have picked up on its journey to your glass. Quench offers a full complement of filtration and purification technologies to remove chemical contaminants, odors, off-tastes, bacteria and other micro-organisms from tap water. That’s how we can guarantee that Quench office water coolers produce crisp, clean, great-tasting water and, at a fraction of the price of bottled water delivery services.

Speak to a water expert today! Call 734-888-8356 or fill out the form above.