Water filtration and aeration unit

A system for purifying water to drink, said system comprising:

• a) a source of dirty water;
• b) means to pump said dirty water from said source to a combined water aeration and filtration unit (WAFU), said WAFU comprising:
• i) a tank with a vent section at a top of said WAFU and above an aeration section;
• ii) said aeration section above a filtration section at a bottom of said WAFU;
• iii) said vent section comprising one or more demisters and one or more vents for detraining water and providing a dry air exit from said WAFU;
• iv) said aeration section comprising a water inlet ending in a spray nozzle near a top of said aeration section to turn incoming dirty water into water droplets;
• v) said aeration section comprising a forced air blower on a side or top of said aeration section for blowing air through said water droplets in rate sufficient to remove volatile organic compounds and precipitate manganese and iron;
• vi) said aeration section further comprising one or more protrusions on an inside wall of said tank to force water from said inside wall into an interior of said tank;
• vii) a backwash collection trough and backwash water outlet positioned above said filter section for removing dirty backwash water from said WAFU;
• viii) said filtration section having one or more filters therein and having a drain and clean water outlet near a bottom of said filtration section for egress of clean water from said WAFU;
• and
• c) means to pump said clean water to a distribution system for consumers.