You strive to ensure that your home is clean. It's easy to tell when the counters, floors, and other surfaces are dirty: you can see it. But many contaminates in your home cannot be seen; they are in your water. Heavy metals, E. coli, and pesticides are just a few potentially harmful contaminants in your water. Contaminates can cause negative health effects that range from mild to severe, including vomiting, diarrhea, organ damage, cancer and even death. Although water is treated at a plant, you can still take measures at home to further ensure you are getting the safest water. Below are three tips to ensure the water in your home is clean.

The first thing you can do is invest in home water purification systems. There are a variety of products on the market to keep impurities out of water: filtered pitchers, shower heads, faucets, counter-top filters, and even household filters. Because they use carbon filters, which absorb certain particles, they are very effective at removing chlorine, heavy metals, pesticides, some pharmaceuticals, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The filters need to be changed, some as often as once a month and others as infrequently as once a year.

Contaminated runoff is a threat to the cleanliness of your water. Runoff from your roof, driveway, and your lawn can carry pollution and other agents, which can enter the water supply. When water reaches the water treatment plant, many impurities are filtered out, but the process cannot remove all chemicals. Preventing polluted runoff from entering nearby water supplies is the second tip to clean and safe water. This may sound like a difficult task, but it can be accomplished quite easily. Learn where the rain drains on your property. You can create a rain garden to direct the runoff. Remember that runoff often includes chemicals from household products, so keep oils, cleaning products, paints, chemicals, insecticides, and weed killers out of drains and sinks. Use nontoxic products whenever possible. Remember, there is no new water; what you use will return to you. Make sure it returns to you as pure as it can.

Reverse water flow in the system is called backflow; this is a problem that can cause contamination. The third and final tip is to prevent backflow in your home to keep your water clean. To prevent backflow in your home, use a backflow prevention device in your main water line, toilets, and sinks. Local or state administrations will dictate what type you can use. Have an experienced plumber handle backflow prevention services to make sure cross connections never happen and you always have clean water.

Follow these simple tips and you'll have clean water to enjoy for a lifetime.