Episode #17: Wild Virginia- The Hidden Threat in Your Tap Water

When the safety of our drinking water is at stake, knowledge becomes our primary line of defense. That's the promise of our latest episode featuring Justin Shoemaker, the innovative mind behind ClearWave Water Solutions. We tackle the critical topic of PFAS—those 'forever chemicals' pervading our water supply—and their alarming impact on health. Justin walks us through the sophisticated whole home filtration systems designed to combat these contaminants, sharing insights on their necessity not just in homes but potentially in safeguarding the water on military bases too. It's a conversation charged with the urgency of protecting our loved ones and the environment from the unseen dangers lurking in our taps.

Ever considered the dark side of chlorine in our city water systems? Our second chapter exposes the risks and how it may react to create hazardous byproducts. We discuss the limitations of municipal water treatment and the pressing need for advanced technology right at the point of entry into our homes. Justin elaborates on the merits of high-grade carbon and dual ion exchange systems, making a case for investing in superior filtration that promises peace of mind with lifetime warranties unlike the dime-a-dozen solutions that may fall short over time.

Wrapping up, we share a personal journey that underscores the direct correlation between water quality and wellbeing. The episode closes on a note of empowerment, guiding listeners on proactive steps they can take to mitigate PFAS exposure—from kitchenware choices to supporting environmental initiatives. Highlighting organizations like Wild Virginia, we stress the importance of collective action in pressuring policymakers and driving change for cleaner, safer water. This episode is not just a call to awareness but a rallying cry for each of us to play a part in the fight against forever chemicals.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:40

All right, hello, hello and thank you for tuning in to this episode of Wild Virginia Virtual Coffee Talk. I am your host, katie Keller, publicity and Outreach Director with Wild Virginia, and today I am really excited we have ClearWave Water Solutions on the line. They are a Virginia-based water treatment company with a mission to provide affordable, effective and environmentally friendly solutions for families and businesses. So we have the founder, justin. Is it Shoemaker?

Speaker 2: 1:08

I should have asked that it is yeah, yeah, shoemaker, yep, common spelling common. I guess you say it the same way as well.

Speaker 1: 1:15

So we have the founder, Justin Shoemaker, a veteran who understands the importance of clean water for the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities, something that's so important to Wild Virginia. But before we dive into our chat, Justin, thank you so much for joining me today.

Speaker 2: 1:29

Yeah, thanks for reaching out. I am super happy to be here and the fact that you live in my area is even better. I had no idea. I guess it makes sense when you're Shenandoah, but super awesome to connect with you guys and I love what you guys are doing.

Speaker 1: 1:42

Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think it definitely takes a coalition of different types of organizations to do some of this important work when it comes to protecting water. And so, while Virginia's newest campaign in protecting Virginia's water quality is stopping PFAS pollution at its source because PFAS threatens our enjoyment and experience of Virginia water, obviously the health of our communities and also the health of terrestrial and aquatic life and so I'm really excited to hear a little bit more about this issue from your perspective and treating water quality in people's homes and businesses. And actually, just for listeners, I actually came across ClearWave as I was searching for different content on social media highlighting PFAS pollution, and so I'm so excited a business like yours is doing that. So tell us a little bit more about what ClearWave does.

Speaker 2: 2:34

Yeah, so basically we do whole home water filtration and softening systems. We also do it for businesses. I'm a disabled vet, so we are registered with the federal government as an SDVSOB. I think I said that right, sdvsob, I think that's right. So you know. I am looking to also expand it into you know, military bases and federal contracts, because if anyone pays attention to the news it always seems like military bases get hit the hardest with this and obviously with PFAS and what make up PFAS?

Speaker 2: 3:07

it tends to be these organizations tend to use a lot of the things that create PFAS in the first place. So I'm really just trying to spread the message and I want people to understand that water quality is one of the most even our. Our water quality sure is probably better than some other places in the world. It is probably some of the most underreported and underregulated things that we use every single day and it really seems to take a massive outbreak like a Blackwater situation or a Flip Michigan situation or people getting sick from chromium six If you ever watch Aaron Brockovichckovich to like say, oh, this is terrible, and then it goes away.

Speaker 2: 3:45

And ironically, this has been the first uh year, or at least last year was the first year that I ever saw anything out of washington start talking about pfos. So people are starting to hear more about it, but this is not a new thing. This has been going on since the 70s. So uh, it is very much, in my opinion, something that is in our waterways. It'll be in our waterways for a long time. It affects everybody and until people know what's happening, I think individuals will probably suffer some of the side effects of these contaminants later in life and I would like people to understand they don't have to do that. There is an alternative.

Speaker 1: 4:25

Right, well, and yeah, I know with you, know you sort of geolocating Washington when people start to care about some of this news? I know that we've seen that with other sort of projects that we, that we fight against, like pipelines, like until it starts coming out of, like these hubs, who's actually going to hear and care about it?

Speaker 1: 4:44

And I mean me personally. I hadn't really heard about, you know, the chemicals and in general and the dangers until just recently. And that's pretty scary because you know I swim in water, I bathe in water, I drink water, and you know I now have a toddler who is doing all these things as well. And so let's talk about some of the dangers of PFAS that you've heard about.

Speaker 2: 5:08

Yeah, absolutely Well, and even to go back on that, with uh city water. Uh, by the way, there's a ton of chlorine in city water. So when you talk about having a child and bathing in that, that's a whole nother conversation for another day, um, but yeah, so forever chemicals? Um, you know they. They're called forever chemicals because they last forever in your body. If you were to go get a blood test right now, the odds are you would probably have some level of these of these chemicals um in in your bloodstream.

Speaker 2: 5:36

So the biggest uh real danger with this stuff is, you know they're carcinogenic, so you can, long-term exposure to these things can cause cancer and negatively affect your health. So that is one of the biggest, biggest issues, in my opinion, with PFAS. And they come, you know they come from everyday life. So you have stain resistant carpeting, nonstick cookware. You know firefighters, you know spray the you know their foam comes from that. Cosmetics, waterproof clothing, fabric softeners all of these things um relate to pfos.

Speaker 2: 6:08

And one of the biggest issues is, if you think about like a standard household, uh, you can have somebody that'll take uh old medication. They flush it down the toilet. So let's get into the waterways that way, uh, for for homeowners that have well water, especially if a lot of these corporations you know they'll dump a lot of their their waste and they'll do things that you know aren't up to what I would say code. And when they put things in the ground or maybe they'll have like a big pool they'll dump things into or they have like their own waste management systems it all gets into the water, the main waterways, it all gets into the ground and eventually that ends up into your drinking water and waste control plants. They do have federal regulations they have to abide by when filtering the water. But people would be astounded if they looked at the Safe Water Drinking Act how loose those restrictions are and how much is allowed to pass. I could be wrong, but as of this point, I believe most water treatment facilities only have to detect for 91 to 102 contaminants and they have to be between certain levels. So and that was set back in the 19, like in the seventies, I think there was one addendum in 92. So really outdated. And so there's a lot of new contaminants and a lot of new forever chemicals that are out in the waterways now that aren't regulated to be filtered. So if there's not any federal regulation to say, hey, you need to filter these things out. They're not going to get filtered, which means if you're drinking tap water, you're drinking it.

Speaker 2: 7:35

Um, and then you know certain things. Like you know, although chlorine is not a forever chemical, some of the byproducts are, and some of these things can pass, you know, the skin barrier and get into your bloodstream. So long-term exposure very dangerous. Um, I always like to associate it with smoking right or eating really unhealthy foods. Uh, if you smoke one pack one time, odds are you're probably not going to get lung cancer. Same thing as if you go eat a couple of donuts or eat, you know, really greasy pizza, you're probably not going to get overweight right away.

Speaker 2: 8:05

But if you eat that and drink that, or eat that all the time, or smoke all the time and smoke a pack a day, odds are over 10 years.

Speaker 2: 8:14

The odds of you having cancer is probably pretty high. If all you do is eat pizzas and fast food for 10 years, every single day, odds are you're probably gonna get overweight. The same thing is if you expose yourself to forever chemicals every single day, if you drink it every single day, if you use it to cook your food with every single day. If you, if your ice maker has it every single day and you use it to keep your you know your your drinks cold. Odds are in the next 10 to 15, or maybe 20 years you're probably gonna have some health complications that you know, probably don't want to have to deal with and unfortunately, when you go to the doctor's office and you find out you have some form of cancer or some sort of illness, they're not going to tell you where it came from. You don't even know, but odds are, their exposure to these things probably is not helping, right.

Speaker 1: 8:55

Well, yeah, and I know that we've written about. You know some of the health effects and you know both wildlife and humans that you know include reproductive cancers, thyroid cancers, and so let's talk about and this is where I'm really interested to hear because, you know, while Virginia is trying to engage with some of these, you know agencies when it comes to discharging PFAS into our waterways. I'm really interested to give sort of listeners like more tactical knowledge when it comes to current water systems. So what are the issues with current water systems that don't filter out PFAS and kind of tell me how it all works.

Speaker 2: 9:34

You're talking about like city water systems, like if it goes from the water plant down to us, right, right, yeah, so I mean the water is all really kind of recycled, so what happens is all the water will go. So there's major major water filtration units, like in certain major cities. So for example, out in DC there's a major one and then as you go down to local municipalities or smaller versions of that, and essentially the water will go into these, these, these facilities, and then it'll go through and I don't run these facilities, so I'm not super knowledgeable about all the systems that they have. But essentially they go through. They have to do their own cleaning process, which usually involves some sort of over-chlorination, and then they distribute it out, they test it, make sure that the level of contaminants that they're forced to regulate are being met down to a certain level, and then they're pushed out into the waterways.

Speaker 2: 10:26

Where the problem comes in is number one, for city water especially is they use chlorine or chloramine, sometimes bromine, to disinfect the water. It's a very, very cheap disinfectant to help kill live bacteria. There are better ways, like UV lighting is a more expensive way to disinfect the water. That doesn't have all the harmful side effects but it is expensive. So what they do is they do chlorine or chloramine.

Speaker 2: 10:54

Fun fact for anyone that lives in a major metropolitan area like, let's say, you live in a DMV is a perfect example. A lot of places. When you use chlorine, it dissipates in the water very quickly. So there'll be these little chlorine dumping stations where they'll dump even more chlorine into the water and they're really not measuring it that much. It's just a huge dump. So if you ever notice that your water sometimes smells more chemically or has a bad taste, it's probably because they just did a chlorine dump. And you'll notice if you go down like side streets. Have you ever like done and I should actually have to use this have you ever gone down like a side street and you see like a random wooden shack somewhere? You're like huh, why is this wooden shack here? Have you ever noticed that before?

Speaker 1: 11:29

No, no, I haven't. Maybe I need to be a little more aware of my surroundings.

Speaker 2: 11:35

Yeah. So I used to live in Fort Washington in Maryland and I would drive down this road and there's a shack that was there and I was like that's just so random to have a wooden shack there. Well, it's actually owned by the city is a chlorine dumping station. So depending on how big that municipality is, they may need to have these little dumping stations to add more chlorine into. Now what ends up happening?

Speaker 2: 11:53

With forever, chemicals and everything else the pipes are under, you know, let's say, let's just say that the, the, the water, uh, the water filtration systems would clear everything out at the station. Well, they then get dumped into pipes that have had nasty water going through it for the last 50 to 60 years. So you have these really disgusting pipes that the water is coming through and the idea is that the chlorine will help fight against that. But the chlorine interacts with all these other chemicals and contaminants that are in the pipes, so you get what are called chlorine byproducts. So the most common one that everyone will know the name of is chloroform, and if you think of chloroform you think of putting a chemical on a rag and making people pass out, but that is in the water. In fact, most of the major cities that I've ever serviced have some level of chloroform in the water. A lot of times it's higher than you would want. There's arsenic in the water that we have found very common, trihalomethanes. We do see chromium-6 in certain cities, especially on the East Coast, which, again, if you've ever watched Aaron Brockovich not something you want. It's very carcinogenic and the reason why this happens is that chlorine is going through these pipes and it's interacting with all these other elements and chemical reactions take place and it creates these byproducts.

Speaker 2: 13:13

Chloroform is in the water because of chlorine and the reality is, if you think of a banana, right, what chlorine is designed to do is kill live bacteria, because we can all agree, if we have live bacteria in our water, we wouldn't be able to drink it. So it kills the live bacteria. It over chlorinates the water, you know, causes problems with your skin, your hair gets into your bloodstream, all kinds of nonsense, um, and then you get the byproducts. So it protects the banana. But once you get a banana into your home, what do you do? Do you eat the banana with the skin on or do you peel it off?

Speaker 1: 13:45

But once you get a banana into your home, what do you do? Do you eat the banana with the skin on or do you peel it off?

Speaker 2: 13:48

Well, depending on how silly I'm feeling, yeah, okay, so if you're not feeling super silly, you'll probably peel it first, right? And then you eat the banana and water or at least city water is the same way you really want that. Once that water gets to your house, you want the peel to be removed, you don't want the chlorine anymore and you don't want all the stuff that it created to come with it. But unfortunately it does. And for well water, the thing with well water is you, you have a benefit of not having to deal with that. But then again, if you're in an agricultural area, you have nitrates to worry about, but you also have PFAS to worry about, more so, because if it goes into the soil it goes directly into your well water. Right, with the, you know, with city water, there is that extra level of protection you can get. But then again, when things get dumped down, everything's recycled and a lot of these PFAS.

Speaker 2: 14:37

Right now there is no regulatory reason for them to remove some of these and it's really hard to get rid of them. So it's kind of left to the homeowners to look for, you know, third party filtration systems, which is stuff that we offer to remove them, which, yes, it keeps us, keeps us in business. However, I would rather not have to do this, because I would much rather, you know, sell you know softeners and things that you know just help the home, but you know that's just where we're in. I would much rather, you know, approach the government level and really stop it at the source, which is why I am trying to attack some of know Washington and make you know different options for you know the actual source material to get filtered, because that's the only cure. Long term is we need to get better filtration at the source and then also potentially look at, you know, maybe removing some of the things that we use, like for non-stick pans, and how those are disposed, or maybe finding alternatives that you know won't make us sick once they're disposed of.

Speaker 1: 15:47

Right? Well, and as you're going through answering that last question, it does all seem really overwhelming when we've had these systems and processes in place for so long and only an addendum in 92. I mean, it does seem overwhelming, but there are a couple of things, like you said preventing long-term exposure for yourself and your family, and then again going to the store stopping that pollution at its source. And then, of course, legislation changes, and so let's talk about water filtration systems.

Speaker 1: 16:18

I've read a couple of blogs on this the good, the okay and the bad when it comes to filtering out PFAS.

Speaker 2: 16:31

Yeah. So what you're really going to want to look for is I like to always take like a two-step approach is you're going to want to want a very, very high level grade of carbon? I would say you want to have catalytic carbon at a minimum. That's going to catch a lot of these things, and then you know, depending on how much you're willing to spend, having some sort of dual ion exchange system is super, super important. Most systems only come with one ion exchange, which is called cat ion exchange, which will obviously get, you know, one half of the particles removed, because the way ion exchange works, just you know, I'm not a scientist, but essentially when you have exchange is either a cation or anion. They inherently have um, a positive or a negative charge, if that makes sense. So what will happen is um, some of these um contaminants that are in the water also have a negative or positive charge. So what can happen is when it goes through the carbon, you'll get a lot of the chlorine, chlorine byproducts, and you can remove some of the PFAS from that. What you can also do for an extra level of protection is have those different ion exchange media beds, because, let's say, you have a positively charged ion bed. Well then, any of the contaminants that are negatively charged. It can do an ion switch and take those ions out and basically make it inert, and then vice versa, right? So, unfortunately, if you um, you know, if you don't have both, you won't be able to get all the contaminants out. Now, of course, having a dual ion exchange, uh will be more expensive, um, and it's actually turned your water into what's called deionized water, which basically means you removed all of the harmful ions out of the water. It's much higher grade.

Speaker 2: 18:06

If you ever look at medical facilities, that's actually where they tend to go towards. When we talk about water filtration, there's a thing called a mega ohm, which is basically a level of purification, and the first step to basically getting there is through deionized water. So that's like the ultimate. And then the second step I always recommend is people get a reverse osmosis system. Just the reason why is, you know, reverse osmosis? The way it works is water goes through a semi permissible membrane. It's super, super small, so you're talking 0.001 micron. Small, so obviously not a lot of water pressure. However, a lot of contaminants can't fit through that level of membrane. So you're able to, at least, from your drinking water. Protect yourself from a lot of these contaminants.

Speaker 1: 19:12

Well, and for some of these systems, what is the maintenance on those? Does it need updating every so years?

Speaker 2: 19:19

So again, it depends on the system. So cheap systems, yes, I'd say if you're spending within the couple grand range or you get something from Home Depot. A lot of those medias don't come with a salt brine tank or, like some of these saltless systems you see out there, they clean themselves out with fresh water. You're looking at probably changing those medias every few years, every two to three years at minimum. Once you get to the stuff that kind of we sell, which is a little bit higher grade, those really require zero maintenance. In fact all of our systems have lifetime warranties on it because we use really really high grade carbon, really high grade ion exchange. And then we have a salt brine bin, which basically is a thing called solar salts, which happens as the salt gets mixed with some water. The system pulls that brine solution into the tank and it basically just breaks up all the contaminants in the tank itself. It releases all the captured ions from the ion exchange and then it pushes it out through a separate drain line. So you basically have this filter that continually just refreshes itself over and over.

Speaker 2: 20:27

If you think of like a Brita filter, which is one of the cheapest options you could do, those filters only last so long. And those are only just those, are basic carbon, what's called activated charcoal carbon filters. So there's different levels of carbon. When you talk to filtration, activated charcoal carbon is probably the lowest grade. It's mainly only really good for filtering out uh, chlorine, okay. So that's why, if you are on a budget, I tell people get a chlorine um or sorry, excuse me a a carbon showerhead because it'll help that chlorine out, but there's no way to actually regenerate it. So one fun thing I do in homes, which actually will gross people out so if you have a Brita filter or a pure filter or a zero water filter or whatever, the newest filter is a hydro IV filter, whatever. One fun thing that I have found is let's say you have that filter for 30 days and you haven't changed it out, and most of the times they say you need to change it out every two to three months.

Speaker 2: 21:21

I've gone to homes, I've had it for less than 30 days and I've tested the water from those filters and it's dirtier than what's coming out of the tap and it's because it's really gross, because those carbon filters get gunked up faster than you think, and so I've done tests between both and I and I'll show people I was like you're better just drinking out of your tap at this point because of how nasty those filters end up getting. So, yeah, obviously you get what you pay for. Our systems whole home systems that are more expensive. They should require very little to zero maintenance. The only thing that you may be required to do is just buy bags of salt from your Home Depot or your Lowe's to fill up that salt brine tank. Yeah, our, our company, we, you know, we offer that as a service. So you know we've designed it that you pay, you buy from us. One time. After you buy from us, you just your hands are off. We take care of the maintenance, we bring salt to you. We do all of it right. We do, you know, and we do annual water testing to make sure your system is operating as it should be, and water does change over time. So if, let's say, your levels go up, we'll come back. We'll recalibrate the system for you. We're very full service in that degree because you know we're really passionate about making sure you have clean, effective water. But that's really the best way to go.

Speaker 2: 22:32

Is you want catalytic carbon or better? You know some some of our systems. For example, if you want like a higher grade, we have a thing called KDF media, which is basically this copper and zinc compound that we integrate with the carbon. It basically supercharges that carbon. It's really good at attacking chlorine and chlorine byproducts, so it then allows the carbon to do its job more effectively. So really really cool.

Speaker 2: 22:57

And then having at least cation or anion exchange as a minimum. If you can get both, then that's great as well. Obviously, if you have both, it'll be be more expensive, but at the bare minimum, just having catalytic carbon and one of the two of the ion exchange medias is one of the best ways to go. And then, if that isn't in your budget, if you can't do that for the whole home, then I would at least look at investing in some level of reverse osmosis drinking water. That's going to be the next best thing as far as what you can control your drinking from. A lot of them have to go under the sink. You can install some of these yourselves, but that would be my recommendation.

Speaker 1: 23:36

Yeah, that's actually the kind that I have in my kitchen. I installed it myself, and if I can do it, honey of y'all can. So you've talked about some things that maybe listeners should think about doing to make sure that their drinking water is safer. And then you mentioned charcoal showerhead. Are there any other best practices that people can implement if maybe they can't invest in a full water system?

Speaker 2: 24:01

Well, one of the cheapest things you could do is a UV light install. Those tend not to be very expensive. Obviously, that would be one of the best mitigations for getting some of the harmful contaminants out and bacteria and things like that. Really, there's not a whole lot you can do outside of that. I mean, I'm not a proponent of bottled water. I mean, I guess if your water was so terrible and you were really on a budget, then going to bottled water would be one of the other solutions. But honestly, the best mitigations are charcoal shower heads and then some sort of a drinking system. Outside of that, there's really nothing else you can do that's going to be effective. Like I said, you can buy Brita filters and things like that. But I've done the testing. They're not that effective, at least not for what you want to get out. And if you're talking about forever chemicals, these things are really really, really potent. You're not going to. There's nothing you're going to be able to do to get these out unless you have some sort of actual filtration happening in your home. You just can't. And that includes plastic bottles, right? You know we'd always think that, okay, well, I'll just drink out of. You know, these plastic bottles I buy from the store, but you got to remember those don't just come right then and there they travel, right, so you, you're going to have a degree of microplastics that you're going to drink. Um, and there's a lot of literature about, you know, if you, if you consume all plastic, you know how does it, how do the phthalates that you drink from that affect you? Right, I know, you know, for the younger generation, there's been, you know, studies that have shown that the, you know, high phthalate ingestion affects reproduction for males and females. So, uh, it's just one of those things where, unfortunately, the, the burden of, of health does fall on the homeowner right now, on, you know, protecting themselves from these things. And it'll be that way until, you know, more people are aware of it and there's more uh, more outcry.

Speaker 2: 25:47

I just don't think, I don't think the public knows how much it actually affects them on a day-to-day basis and that's why they don't care. Um, I've been in so many homes where people, you know the water will test horrible, but they'll be like, ah, I drink out of the hose, I don't care, and I'll be like, don't you have, did you just tell me, like an hour ago, you have all these health problems. Yeah, man, I'll get over it. I was like, all right, cool, like I just don't think people care. And until you know, you think about.

Speaker 2: 26:08

You know what happened in Flint and all these areas. You know there was already a problem there before it became a problem. It just a disaster happened or a pipe burst had to happen or something had to happen to where they're like oh my gosh, this is horrible. And then it becomes national news story and then it goes away. It gosh, this is horrible. And then it becomes national news story and then it goes away.

Speaker 2: 26:27

It's just not something we think about, because you know we drink our water every day from the tap for more Most people do at least and it's just not something that is on, is in the news. Right, if it was in a new cycle all the time, then people would care, right, like if if we could create a new cycle where it had the same like the same level of like fear that covet had, people would be losing it over their water. And what people don't realize is people, I guarantee you there's gonna be more people that are gonna get health complications from their water than they would have from covet. Yet it's just, it's not thought of, it's just, it's a, it's an afterthought. We are just, from a young age, led to believe that our water is fine.

Speaker 2: 27:06

And, trust me, I didn't know about any of this until I got out of the military, and I literally because of COVID. So I used to work with NCIS while I was in the Navy. So I worked out of the Pentagon doing executive protection for the secretary of the Navy and secretary of defense. So my whole path was I was going to go into federal law enforcement or do like a three letter agency or maybe work for like World Bank or Leidos as like a protection officer. But when COVID happened, it disappeared.

Speaker 2: 27:37

So my buddy, brandon Wooldridge he was doing water treatment and he was like hey, justin, I know you're like into fitness and health, you should come work at this company. Like you know, it's pretty crazy what's going on with the water. So I went there and I went through three weeks of training, just learning about water and how it works and then doing the testing and it honestly it grossed me out like crazy. It was horrible. So I went to my house and I took my water testing kit and just tested my water and it was absolutely disgusting. I mean I the chlorine levels that were in my water were were like six times above what any pool would allow in the in the water, which is crazy Like the amount of water that comes out of our tap is a lot of times four to five times higher than what a pool would even allow them to use. Right, it's insane. The hardness was terrible. Tons of contaminants in there.

Speaker 2: 28:28

So I immediately got a whole home system and what was insane is I started feeling better. My health improved, I just noticed I felt like I didn't have brain fog as much. I felt healthier, I felt better. I used to have really bad acne, which was caused by the water, completely went away. Had some psoriasis eczema problems completely went away. You know, my wife's hair got healthier.

Speaker 2: 28:53

Because these are things that you know affect you physically and it's just, it changed my life Like I can't, and obviously I. It impacted me so much that I changed careers and, you know, eventually learned more and built my own company. But it's just something that you know. Once you'd make the switch and you have a system in your home and you see how much it betters your life, you really do realize at that point like, oh my gosh, I didn't know this is how my body was operating under what I was drinking. It's the same lesson as and I can talk on this because this happened to me I was super unfit, I was super unhealthy, I used to eat a lot of unhealthy foods all the time and I, you know, thought that was just my natural state of being.

Speaker 2: 29:32

I didn't did I did I not did I feel great? No, but did I know how much better I could have felt? No Cause, that's just my state of being. The moment I got into the gym, I changed up my diet, I got fit and healthy. I, you know my mood was better. I, you know, I had more energy, I felt better, I had better self-image. Like every part of my life got better the moment I got fit and healthy. And it's the same thing with the water the moment you decide to make that investment and the moment you make that switch, it will. It'll blow your mind. One of my, my best testimonials I have. I have two um. One is from my company, the other was from um, the company I used to work for, um back in the day, and this was the moment, the first one I want to talk about is the one that that that made me realize that I was going to be in water treatment for the rest of my life was.

Speaker 2: 30:20

I went to this family's home and they had a daughter. I think she was probably like seven or eight years old. And and they had a daughter, I think she was probably like seven or eight years old and she had the worst like psoriasis I've ever seen in my entire life. It was like from head to toe horrible. She was uncomfortable and these poor parents were spending I think they were saying like I don't know three or four grand a month or something on doctor visits and ointments and creams and all this stuff, right, and it wasn't getting any better.

Speaker 2: 30:45

So I told them I was like listen, you know, a lot of times with people that have sensitive skin, with how bad the water is, uh, soap and all these things do get left on your skin. Um, they get left on your appliances, they get left on your your dishes, right? It's really disgusting if you look at it. And I said you know, if you have really sensitive skin, this can make these things happen. I was like I can't promise you that buying one of these systems will make your daughter's condition any better, although it has been shown to help it. So you know at that point, like, well, what else we got? What else do we have to lose? Right? So they got the system and within what was that? Probably four weeks, I got a phone call from them and like she was basically in tears saying, oh my gosh, I can't believe it, her psoriasis is all gone. It's gone like it's all, like it's completely evaporated, and I I felt so good. I was like, oh my gosh, like the, how amazing I felt from. That was awesome, like it was crazy.

Speaker 2: 31:38

It was the water. And then, more recently, one of my clients um, he left a review on on our, on our google profile. He had eczema and within weeks it completely went away just from having the water changed. And this isn't stuff that we think about, right, and these are the things I just want people to know. Like there is so much. You use it every single day. You know our body. I don't know the statistics. I think our body is like what? Like 50% or 60% water, maybe a little bit more. So you're drinking this stuff every day, you shower in it every day, you wash your dishes in it every day. If you could just experience how much it really affects you, and if you could experience what it's like to not deal with it, you would never go into a home without it, ever again. I can promise you that.

Speaker 1: 32:21

Well, you certainly have me sold, so I know that ClearWave offers free tests, so tell us how people can opt in for that.

Speaker 2: 32:29

Yeah, so if you live in Virginia, maryland or DC and, honestly, we have partners that operate along the East Coast, so if you're on along the East Coast, we can probably help you out. Easiest way is to either give us a call at 757-828-8594. If you go to our website at clearwavewatercom, uh, there's a booking, you know, a book now link there. You can email us, um, but those would probably be the easiest way, either by email, phone or our website. Um, that 757 number. You can text it, you can call it. Um, that's like our main business line. Um, and, yeah, just reach out to us. Uh, those ways we will get you, we'll get you booked. If you're more of an email person, you can email us at info at clearwavewatercom to say hey, this is my name, so-and-so, I just want to get my water tested and we will do it for free.

Speaker 1: 33:18

That's amazing, and so, like Justin said, it's it's really on the homeowner right now when it comes to preventing long-term exposure, for with exposure of PFAS. So that includes maybe changing up some of that nonstick cookware to stuff like cast iron, but also getting one of these water filtration systems so you and your family can remain safe. And so Wild Virginia aims to prevent PFAS pollution into our waters by insisting that the DEQ and State Water Control Board use all authorities to prevent the release of PFAS into our waters that come through discharges from wastewater plants and industries, and so we also hope to do this by educating the public, decision makers and the media about PFAS through venues like this. Like Justin said, it's really important that we bring PFAS and continue to have it in this new cycle. So for more information, you can obviously visit clearwavewatercom, and for more information on what we're doing to fight PFAS, you can visit wwwwildvirginiaorg. And I will stop it there. That was great.

Speaker 2: 34:25

Awesome, yeah, great, that was fun Hopefully that was.