tap water quality ?

[dave thompson]

Originally Posted by vav

I'd rather drink tap from Mexico City than from NJ...

In Mexico City hotels there are 3 water taps in the rooms; hot, cold and drinking. The water there is truly awful and even so, getting harder and harder to get because of the rapidly increasing population, about 25 million which is nearly 20% of total population of the country of Mexico!

Jerseys water must be really bad!

[echappist]

not the part of NJ where i live (>30 miles from NYC)

worst water i've ever had was in Tampa. Tasted foul...

I trust most tap water sources, but what i don't trust are the plumbing in some of the older houses. As its etymological root would suggest, plumbing contains certain amount of plumbo (aka Pb or lead), so there's that for the older plumbing (the copper pipes contain certain amount of lead).

Still, i filter my water to make it softer. I know for a fact that there was a lot of dissolved particles from the tap water source in my apartment in Arlington VA. It actually registered as somewhat hard when i tested it. The same wasn't true for tap water here in NJ.

That said, water filters create their own special type of non-recyclable waste...

[Jaybee]

This a topic near and dear to my heart - I clean up environmental pollution for a living, and my wife works in our municipal water quality department.

concerns of Flint-like scenarios are real, but shouldn't be overinflated into a panic. Nearly every municipal water system contains lead piping in some quantity, and a change in the chemistry of the water running through those pipes could drive leaching into the water supply. The good news is that most municipal utilities are scared to death of this scenario, have good competent administrators, engineers and scientists thinking about and preparing for scenarios where water supply is changing, and are constantly testing, retesting and verifying the quality of what they are delivering. I do not worry about what I drink out of the tap.

[Cloozoe]

I'm more than a touch less sanguine than many here, although I've been known to drink out of a likely parasite-ridden stream when fishing if thirsty enough.

Regulations are only as good as the testing and enforcement behind them. That's where the executive branch comes in. Any bets as to which way that wind's blowing?

[HenryA]

When I travel I'll try the local water. If it tastes good I drink it. Not so good, I might buy some bottled.

At home we have a well and I love that there are no chemicals to smell or taste.

[daker13]

Yes, it's true that tap water is tested and not all bottled water is, and that's certainly something to be aware of. My state has great water, for the most part, but the town where I live gets water from Massachusetts that does not test so well. The local water utility is corrupt and an embarrassment. (The mind-your-own-business attitude of the crony water utility people probably bothers me more than the health concerns, to be honest.)

I think it's silly to treat Flint as an anomaly, as if all the water supplies in the US are perfect. It depends where you are.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/09/u...ationwide.html

For drinking water, I get the big bottles delivered from a local natural spring. It tastes great, it's tested, it's not expensive, and it's a local company.

[Schmed]

Originally Posted by Cloozoe

Regulations are only as good as the testing and enforcement behind them. That's where the executive branch comes in. Any bets as to which way that wind's blowing?

Well.... the previous admin didn't quite prevent Flint from happening, so there's a bit of a hole in your theory.

There's a lot of self-reporting and monitoring, and there's no way any executive branch could oversee every single municipality's water treatment program.

As such, there's a bit of trust that we all place in our tap water treaters, and that was destroyed in Flint. That whole mess could have been prevented, too. Sad.

[Cloozoe]

Originally Posted by Schmed

Well.... the previous admin didn't quite prevent Flint from happening, so there's a bit of a hole in your theory.

There's a lot of self-reporting and monitoring, and there's no way any executive branch could oversee every single municipality's water treatment program.

As such, there's a bit of trust that we all place in our tap water treaters, and that was destroyed in Flint. That whole mess could have been prevented, too. Sad.

Ha! Good one! Dang liberals!

Actually I meant executive branch -- lower case-- whether local, state or federal -- as opposed to legislative. I didn't really expect Trump to go wandering the nation personally inspecting every well...honest! Nor do I expect his or anybody else's minions could be flawless in execution.

If there's political desire, adequate money allocated, and a respect for science and expertise, the water supply will continue to be protected; if there isn't, it won't.

[Schmed]

Originally Posted by Cloozoe

If there's political desire, adequate money allocated, and a respect for science and expertise, the water supply will continue to be protected; if there isn't, it won't.

As best as it can, I suppose. So hard to be 100% with water quality and the millions (?) of small water treatment operators. But... there is a lot of training and testing, so it's about all we can do. I saw my little municipality testing one of the hydrants near my house. Using a $40 chlorine test kit. The chlorine test kit I use is $450.

[rounder]

Originally Posted by HenryA

When I travel I'll try the local water. If it tastes good I drink it. Not so good, I might buy some bottled.

At home we have a well and I love that there are no chemicals to smell or taste.

Same here. I travel with my job, Usually, the water tastes fine. If it tasted bad, or if I had a reason to believe that the water was not good, I would buy some. That does not happen very often.

[RFC]

Originally Posted by Schmed

Aren't Flint standards the same as anywhere else, as the EPA sets the standards and municipalities have to follow them (self-regulated, however).

Yes, I was just making a bad environmental joke. Flint is, obviously, in enormous violation of drinking water standards.

[RFC]

Originally Posted by Schmed

Aquafina, and most other bottled waters are purified, not just filtered. They use reverse osmosis to remove most of the minerals (99% ish), ozonate (to kill bacteria, etc.), then add some minerals back in for taste (magnesium, etc.).

I work with some of these plants. Some are much cleaner than others.

I don't hesitate to drink their waters, but I drink out of the tap.

Also - if you want to save the cost of a Brita, but remove chlorine taste, fill a pitcher with tap water, put it in the fridge. In hours/days, the chlorine dissipates and you get "free" chlorine-free water!

And then you are ready to make cold brew coffee!

[RFC]

Originally Posted by Jaybee

This a topic near and dear to my heart - I clean up environmental pollution for a living, and my wife works in our municipal water quality department.

concerns of Flint-like scenarios are real, but shouldn't be overinflated into a panic. Nearly every municipal water system contains lead piping in some quantity, and a change in the chemistry of the water running through those pipes could drive leaching into the water supply. The good news is that most municipal utilities are scared to death of this scenario, have good competent administrators, engineers and scientists thinking about and preparing for scenarios where water supply is changing, and are constantly testing, retesting and verifying the quality of what they are delivering. I do not worry about what I drink out of the tap.

+1 I've lived among the noble savage and I know your ways!

[Hilltopperny]

I'll jump in here and say that there are plenty of places in my state of New York alone where I wouldn't touch the tap water. Lots of pfoa contamination in places like Hoosick Falls and I'm willing to bet that this is a problem in all kinds of post industrial cities and towns whose infrastructures have been neglected for the past 85 years.

I have a well and there are a lot of natural springs in my area. I prefer those to the old municipal water in my prior home. Some are better than others, but there are some places where the old pipes and such haven't been changed in far too long.

[Tony T]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

off to the bar, at least i'm certain that the Dewars wont kill me!

“I don't drink water. Fish fućk in it.” — W.C. Fields
Also Evian spelled backwards is….