Pure Persuasion

Early on January 10 – within an hour of unveiling the third of John Cohen’s trio of articles on his quest to deliver toxin-free pool and spa water to his clients – I heard from a reader who wanted us to repeat all of the articles as one document to make it easier to share with clients who might be interested.

“I want to let them know what a challenge it is to get rid of the stuff they don’t want,” he wrote. “I also want to let them know that it’s possible if that’s what they really want and are ready to pay for it.”

I filed that one away, because the sort of republication he was requesting is something we haven’t done before. It just seemed unnecessary. But then a second request came in from another reader, then a third – and by the end of the day, I’d decided that maybe a fresh, comprehensive version of the series wasn’t such a bad idea.

You can link to the combined articles through this edition of our newsletter by clicking its link or, more directly, by clicking here. All three parts are included, the only new element being a fresh headline that suggests the more comprehensive nature of the text.

In rereading everything to make certain the recombination process hadn’t disrupted or dropped anything, I was impressed all over again by the ambition and extent of John’s quest as well as by his willingness to share what he’s learned. It’s all about persistence and curiosity – and his utter refusal to compromise his essential mission of delivering pure, sustainable water to more of his clients.

The combined text you see here is lengthy and rich in detail, but it’s actually a condensation of a much longer document I’ve taken to calling “The Cohen Manifesto” because of its zeal and raw determination. The longer version ventures into additional hypotheses and speculations and digs more deeply into the philosophy John has developed and applied along the way. He intends to publish the full text on his Web site sometime soon; when it’s up and running, I’ll publish a link.

In the meantime, more than 1,000 of you have read the original trio of articles. I’m hoping that this unusual republication will help spread the word and get even more people involved with this emerging and important approach to watershaping.

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It’s coincidental that the “Essential” article highlighted in this newsletter is one from 2005 about the efforts of a pond builder to make water utterly clear without the use of chemicals: We’d scheduled it into this edition of the newsletter several weeks before we made a final decision about when to rerun John Cohen’s articles.

The pond-making process described by George Forni in “A Crystal-Clear Mandate” harmonizes neatly with its pool/spa companion: As in all critical systems, it seldom hurts to over-engineer – and that’s just what Forni and his associates did by beefing up filtration systems and supplementing a large-scale biofiltration approach with sand filtration while using twice the usual count of skimmers to maximize the turnover rate.

I like where all of this has been heading for years now: Could clear, clean water with zero chemical/toxin-free intervention become an industry-sweeping standard?