Every water filter is engineered to certain specifications. These specifications include things like normal operating flow rate and the expected concentrations of contaminants entering the filter. If the concentration of contaminants entering the filter exceeds the specifications, the filter may be overwhelmed and may let water through which still has harmful levels of contaminants. Please see THIS LINK for results of Andy Whelton’s benchtop test of a commercial filter being exposed to levels of VOC’s that have been found or exceeded in other urban-wildland fires. Because the presence or amount of contamination in the water system is currently unknown, it is not recommended to attempt to purify the water through filtering.
Why does the advisory say filters will not work to remove wildfire related contamination?
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