40 Years Later: Clean Water Act and Industrial Water Filtration Keep Water Pure

PRLog (Press Release) - Nov. 27, 2012 - Greenville, SC -- November 27, 2012 -- On October 18, 2012, the Clean Water Act celebrated its 40th birthday. The Act has been instrumental in ensuring that damaging pollutants are kept out of America’s waterways. Prior to the implementation of the Clean Water Act, many communities were dumping raw, untreated sewage and industrial waste into rivers and lakes. These practices became banned with the passage of the Act in 1972, and a focus was placed on improving water cleanup efforts.

Around the same time as the passage of the Clean Water Act, membrane filtration made its first public debut. Reverse osmosis is an example of membrane water treatment technology that uses pressure to force water through a semi-permeable membrane and filter out contaminants. While the first semi-permeable membrane was described  over 100 years ago, it wasn’t until the 1940’s that researchers began experimenting with reverse osmosis for desalination of sea water. By the 1960’s the first commercial reverse osmosis plants were in operation, producing thousands of gallons of pure water per day. Home reverse osmosis systems quickly followed, appearing in the early 1970’s.

With today’s technological advancements,  modern membrane filtration systems can easily filter millions of gallons of water per day and have proven a valuable companion to the Clean Water Act. Many wastewater treatment plants now use membrane water filtration technology to treat wastewater. For example,  reverse osmosis filtration has proven effective and economical in reclaiming and recycling wastewater previously discharged from  industrial and manufacturing processes. For more information on how reverse osmosis works, visit: www.waterprofessionals.com/ultrapure/reverse_osmosis.html

About WaterProfessionals®: WaterProfessionals® is an industrial water treatment company that specializes in providing industrial water filtration and purification solutions, ultrapure water, process water, wastewater treatment solutions, outsourced water treatment solutions, and more. WaterProfessionals® is a GE Water & Technologies Partner. To learn more about their industrial water treatment solutions, visit: www.waterprofessionals.com.