Tim Willert
GLENDALE CITY HALL -- It's called the "Cadillac" of the industry, but
a home filtration system that claims to remove chromium and other
contaminants from drinking water has raised some eyebrows at Glendale
Water and Power.
An advertisement for the product, which retails for $495 and promises
to deliver purified water "for life," appeared in Saturday's News-Press.
The system, the ad claims, will remove chlorine, chromium, nitrates,
fertilizer, lead, dirt and "scores of other contaminants."
Not so, said Don Froelich, water and services administrator for
Glendale Water and Power.
"All it is is a simple water filtration system," Froelich said
Wednesday. "I find it hard to believe that it would remove all the
chemicals that he says it will."
Froelich said he plans to send a copy of the ad to the state
Department of Health Services, which oversees Glendale's water system.
Froelich further questioned the tactics used in the ad's message: "WHY
DRINK CHEMICALS??? Glendale to Allow More Chromium 6 in Water. Why would
they 'allow' this?"
"It's an ad that plays on the fear of the people," Froelich said.
"[The ad] infers that [the city] may have violated federal or state
standards, which it doesn't."
In January, the City Council approved a plan that will increase
chromium 6 levels from 3 to 6 parts per billion. That level is still a
fraction of allowable state and federal levels of chromium 6, which are
50 and 100 parts per billion, respectively.
Barry Jackson, a salesman whose phone number appears in the ad, said
Wednesday that he tapped into community concerns surrounding levels of
chromium 6 in the drinking water.
"We saw there was a problem and we thought Glendale would be a nice
marketing target," Jackson said.
Jackson said his product makes water taste better and removes
impurities through a four-filter system that fits under the sink.
"It has been tested and retested," Jackson said.
But Dan Melendez, a technical services representative with Hydrotech,
the Valencia-based company that manufactures the system Jackson is
marketing disputed some of Jackson's claims.
"It reduces solids in the water," Melendez said Wednesday. "It does
not remove them completely."
Melendez did say that one of his company's certified systems is
capable of removing 86% of chromium 6, but did not know if that's the
product Jackson is marketing.
Additional calls to Jackson were not returned.
