About this episode

Zach Hamilton discusses the hidden contaminants in tap water and the limitations of current water infrastructure and regulations.

Your tap water passed every government test this morning, and it still contains contaminants the EPA has no mandate to remove. Zach Hamilton built 20 prototype reverse osmosis machines trying to solve that problem, and his answer is a laboratory-grade, all-stainless-steel RO system designed to last 20 years in your kitchen. His core argument is simple and a little unsettling: 150,000 separate water districts are doing their best, but the infrastructure is too old and too slow to protect you from modern contaminants. The solution has to happen at the tap. What this episode covers: - Why water is location-specific: source water, aging pipes, and your home's own plumbing all add their own signature to what comes out of the tap, making every water supply a different "soup" - How PFAS break the dose-makes-the-poison rule: as endocrine disruptors that mimic hormones, even trace concentrations at the parts-per-trillion level can trigger whole-system effects in the body - Why the regulatory clock moves too slowly: in Flint, the city waited more than a year after scientific confirmation before notifying residents, and that delay is structural, not exceptional - How reverse…

More episodes of Liquid Assets

• Alec Ajnsztajn: The Reactor That Destroys PFAS Instead of Just Capturing It · July 1, 2026 · 56 min
• Terry Arko: Why the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool Keeps Turning Green · June 23, 2026 · 34 min
• Why AI Data Centers Have a Water Problem: Stanford's Newsha Ajami · June 19, 2026 · 44 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Liquid Assets podcast page.