8 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • APRIL 2019
WHAT’S IN THE WATER?
By CLAUDE SOLNIK
A man conducting a free water test
for New Jersey-based Aspen Water
Solutions recently arrived in a Plainview
home on Long Island with a
suitcase and what appeared to be a
chemistry kit.
Wearing a shirt with the words “Aqua
Maven” along with The Home Depot’s
bright orange logo as an authorized
service provider, he whisked out a
beaker, test tubes, and various reagents.
He quickly turned a kitchen
into a makeshift chemistry laboratory,
testing for chlorine levels and
substances dissolved in the water.
“Wow, baby. Look at you,” the man
said in apparent shock. “This is your
water unfiltered. This is what you’re
drinking, cooking, and bathing in. I
was not expecting that.”
The results of the chlorine test, he
said, showed shockingly high levels
that should worry anyone.
“Long Island’s water is probably
the worst I’ve ever tested,” he said
after testing for total dissolved
solids, as transparent water became
murky. “You have different issues all
throughout Long Island.”
In addition to identifying the problem,
he promised the solution in the
form of a filter that he said would cost
nearly $6,000.
“People are buying filtration systems,”
the salesman who did the tests
said as he took out fliers for filters and
a Newsday article about problems
with groundwater. “If you’re interested
in fixing it, we can fix it very
simply by putting a house filtration
system on it.”
WATER WORRIES
While the pitch sounds scary, it may
be based on more fear than fact. At
this reporter’s request, he repeated
the tests with Poland Spring bottled
water, which became murky and,
he said, performed poorly. But the
test, not the water, may be where the
trouble lies in this case.
Salespeople armed with proof of affiliations
with The Home Depot are
going door-to-door on the Island and
elsewhere, testing water for free and
making sales pitches for multi-thousand
dollar filters.
They target areas where legitimate
ground water issues raise concerns
in the news. LI, whose sole source
of drinking water is a subterranean
aquifer, has had more than its share
of issues. And there are real concerns
regarding water in the region.
Pollutants left over from Grumman
and the U.S. Navy created a plume
of toxins that have impacted some
drinking water wells, for example.
Newly identified chemicals such as
1,4-dioxane have also been found on
Long Island. A New York State panel
in mid-December recommended
strict drinking water standards for
contaminants used in making firefighting
foam and household products
that seeped into groundwater.
And those are just a few of the issues
that have emerged.
TEST TROUBLE
Water suppliers are investing in
high-tech methods to better filter
water. This, however, doesn’t mean
there are problems with water that
is coming out of the taps in LI homes.
Suppliers are installing high-tech
filters designed to fix the problem
before it gets to residents’ faucets.
“Once they salespeople perform the
testing and the consumer sees their
water through the testing, the water
looks gunky,” says Brian Hancock, an
attorney at Pensacola, Florida law firm
Taylor, Warren & Weidner, who is suing
The Home Depot, as well as the maker
of the RainSoft filter and a distributor,
in Florida, and Ohio. “It has a negative
visual impact. They believe there is
something wrong with their water.”
Aspen Water sells Brita/Pro softeners
and filters, a different brand, and
has nearly 4.5 out of five stars from
HomeAdvisor.com and only two complaints
to the Better Business Bureau
over three years.
But officials said that these tests can
function as sales tactics, designed
more to alarm than to alert. And
additional tests of the water Aspen
tested revealed no issues.
Tests by the Plainview Water District
on the same faucet used by the salesperson
revealed results officials said
are well within federal, state, and
local regulations.
IN THE NEWS
Headlines about trouble with Long Island drinking water are being used by filtration salespeople. (Getty Images)
“All of our water meets very rigorous water
control standards set by the state and
federal government,”
says Tim Motz, a spokesman for the Suffolk County
Water Authority.
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