Dear Editor,
When we made renovations to our house, we thought that adding an "RO" (Reverse Osmosis) filter by Culligan would be a good thing to have.
This would then filter our drinking water and also the water we got from our refrigerator, not to mention the ice we would get from filtered water too.
We did not want to deal with the annoying need to lift heavy BOTTLED WATER onto their cooling stands every so often. So needless to say, we were pretty pleased with our decision.
From December 2001 to Fall of 2005 we were the walking, talking ad for the Culligan System. Then came Irvington’s HYDRANT FLUSH in the Fall of 2005. All of a sudden the RO filter started getting clogged every three months or so. Up until this time the RO lasted for a year, as it was supposed to. Since then we have had Culligan come and check our water and the filters that have been changed. We were shocked and horrified to see the color the filter was turning in three months. Now we were convinced that we needed a whole-house filter. So we went ahead and installed a full house filter that is usually needed for areas that have well water. The idea was that, this would save the RO filter which was more expensive (almost $300),while we used the full house filter ($25), which we would change every three months. After what we had seen being filtered with the RO filter, of course we were not going to drink our water unfiltered.
But now the full house filter has started blocking up every month, instead of every three months. Culligan tells us this should not happen even if we had well water. (We in Irvington have town water which is supposed to be better than well water, or do we?) They have asked us to check the pipes coming to our house. Local plumbers have refused to check the pipes, as it is not their job they say. They have told us to talk to the village. The village has asked us to wait for the hydrants to be flushed, and then let them know if the problem persists; but the problem initially started with the hydrants being flushed. The hydrants were supposed to be flushed on July 7th in our area. It has not been done yet. So we wait, and keep changing the filters.
My question is, do we have a budget for clean drinking water? Do the people of Irvington know what they are drinking? Will this situation ever be corrected? Enquiring minds want to know.
Shishir Bhattacharya
Irvington
