Do you have Blue Water?

Have you experienced blue/green water or blue/green stains on your plumbing fixtures?

This is a problem that has plagued the homeowners of the Rancho Vista area for many years. We have contacted a representative of LA Waterworks and the following is the explanation:

• All water delivered to the Rancho Vista area is 100% California Aqueduct water, which is slightly corrosive in nature. Neutral pH is 7.5. Below that Point is acidic and above that point is alkaline. The California Aqueduct water is 7.1 pH. This is slightly acidic but within State guidelines.
• The water left untreated will cause small amounts of copper to leach out of your copper piping and deposit blue/green stains on some of your plumbing fixtures.
• In order to combat this problem LA Waterworks has added Zinc Ortho Phosphate to the water which deposits a small coating on the interior walls of the copper piping to protect it from the corrosive action of the Aqueduct water.
• This works well unless you are using a water softener. According to LA Waterworks the chemical action of the soft water on the pipe walls removes the coating put on the pipes by the Zinc Ortho Phosphate added at the treatment plant.
• They claim the copper lost from the pipes is minimal and will not cause your pipes to leak. Their recommendation is to not use a water softener with the water delivered to the Rancho Vista area.
• Some of the new tracts (Beazer) have circumvented this problem by the use of plastic pipe in the homes in place of copper. This type of piping seems to have no adverse affect from the use of a water softener.

We were told on another occasion that our water has a high lead content, but within state guidelines. When questioned about the safety of drinking Zinc Ortho Phospate and high levels of lead, the employee said, "I wouldn't drink the water."

It is a sad commentary that we are not allowed to have the choice of soft water because the water supplier has chosen to solve this problem of slightly corrosive water in this manner. If anyone in the community has any chemical engineering background and can give us a suggestion that we can use in dealing with this issue with LA Waterworks we would appreciate it.