In regions of the country which rely on groundwater and well water for domestic water supply there is increased awareness and concern over harmful or otherwise objectionable groundwater contaminants. For example, possible water source contamination by thousands of abandoned and unattended underground gasoline and oil tanks is a growing national problem. Another risk is posed by the presence of radioactive gas Radon 222 in water supplies of New England. Particularly high levels have been detected and measured in water supplies derived from granitic rock, such as that found in Maine and New Hampshire. Groundwater supplies in many areas of the country carry objectionable odors from natural sulfur compounds.
While a large community water supply or water company is able to correct some of these problems with large-scale, expensive equipment, the individual well water supply owner in rural areas presently has available no economic solution. A number of systems have been proposed for domestic water treatment including atomization aeration of water in a spinning disk atomizer water treatment apparatus for "complete elimination of objectionable absorbed gases and complete oxidation of oxidizable substances", (Schleyer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 2,872,415); spraying, recycling and respraying water in a reactor tank "to purge the water of radon gas" and "breaking up the water droplets for release of radon gas" (Rost, U.S. Pat. No. 4,371,383); and injecting jets of gas for bubbling through a tank such as described in the Fischer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,549.
A disadvantage of the prior art systems proposed for aeration purging, oxidizing and eliminating volatile contaminants from domestic water supplies is that relatively large, separate and expensive appliances are required to be installed in the home or other building. There is available no in-line well water aeration processing without such additional equipment apparatus.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds