Chlorinated (and Chloraminated) Water Filtration Systems
Most American and Canadian municipalities (including Winnipeg) have treated their water with chlorine to kill the bacteria and viruses behind waterborne diseases such as dysentery. If your municipality treats its water supply with chlorine to neutralize biologically active agents, you likely have relatively clean water, but depending on where it's sourced, how it's treated, and the condition of your pipes, your water may still contain many contaminants. Municipally treated water can contain sediments; metals such as mercury or lead; chemicals from gasoline or industrial waste; cysts or other harmful microbes; and even pharmaceutical drugs. You may also simply not like the odor or the taste of your local tap water, if only because of additives including chlorine and/or fluoride.
Aviva offers many OPUS water purification systems which can filter those and other impurities out of your water, while still leaving – or, for some systems (the AlkaPlus model), even adding additional – health-promoting alkalizing minerals, which also leave it with a better taste than bland distilled water. They're easy to use and maintain, they don't waste water or require a special holding tank like Reverse Osmosis systems, and they have relatively low operating costs – especially compared to bottled water. And some don't even require any type of special installation, apart from simply clipping a diverter onto your kitchen tap.
Some can purify your entire house's water supply (including wash water), while others are designed specifically for drinking water. Most of the OPUS drinking water systems are designed to remove fluoride, while others (particularly those with "Freedom" in their title) are not.
In addition, as of 2024, the OPUS drinking water systems (but not the 3M brand's) are now also outfitted with filters that can also remove chloramines, which some cities (including Toronto) have recently switched to using to disinfect their water supplies, instead. Chloramines are more stable compounds of chlorine with ammonia that are less likely to form carcinogenic trihalomethanes (THMs) when reacting to substances in the water. Chloramine is far more difficult to remove from water than chlorine, however: it won't simply evaporate away, and some remains even after boiling, so OPUS uses catalytic carbon filters to tackle that problem: an advanced activated carbon product designed to adsorb (remove) both chlorine and chloramines.
For those with unique water situations (such as well water), it may be possible to customize some of these systems with substitute or additional filters, or to tailor-make a new system for your exact needs, upon request.
For an extensive overview of OPUS systems and its approach to purifying drinking water in contrast to other methods, please download the OPUS Complete Water Purification Systems Guide [PDF]. Related reading: Sanitizing an OPUS Water Filtration System Housing
