Do you drink Austin's water? (Houston, Dallas: buy, stores, safe)

[timfountain]

Get an under sink reverse osmosis system if you want pure water without a lot of waste. If you install yourself you can get one for $200-$300 and the water coming out of there is ultra pure. An RO system will typically have a carbon filter to remove chlorine, a .5 micron sediment & heavy metal filter, a TFC membrane that only lets H & O molecules through and 1 or 2 additional carbon filters.

It is hooked to a 5 gallon reservoir and we have been using the same electric kettle for 7 years with no scale; in fact the inside looks like new. You should see the color of the sediment/heavy metal filter after 6 months, it is this sort of yellow/grey color which are all the heavy metals it has filtered. One other thing we did was to capture the waste water output to an outside barrel that we use for plant watering. With a rejection ratio of 1:5 to 1:10, RO systems generate a lot of waste water.

Maintenance is quite easy, change the filters when the total dissolved solids (TDS) reading starts to rise (we have a TDS meter built into the tap). Flush the TFC membrane when changing the filters (but not with chlorinated water). Every 5 years or so you will need a new TFC membrane and every year or so you should empty, sterilize and re-pressurize the reservoir.
[SIZE=3] [/SIZE]

[jobert]

Hear you on the pizza crust, though. Not a lot of carbon in the water, can't get the slight fizz like other places, that's why they use baking soda. Anyhow, If you don't like the water here, take a trip to Dallas and pour a glass - it tastes like dirt. The water here is one of the "small things" that makes this town great, it's like bottled water out of the tap. This won't last forever though as we continue to build on our aquifer out west of town, but that's another story.

[readymade]

So funny, I'm trying to figure out what to do about water as well. We don't want to drink out of the tap because of the feces, anti-depressents, etc..

And we don't want to drink out of plastic because plastic raises estrogen levels and can cause birth defects.

We bought a PUR water filter thing and it doesn't fit on our tap AND apparently they don't make an adapter for it (went to about 5 stores looking for one). We can't afford an under-the-sink water filter (also, neither of us are handy and I don't think we'd know how to install it. plus, we're renting).

So... what? What do we do?

[Trainwreck20]

The Austin water system was one of the hanful (3 or 4?) in the country that did not show any detectable traces of pharmaceuticals (although they only tested for a limited set of 100 something known items). Part of the reason for that is probably the lack of significant development WNW of Austin, where our water supply really originates.

And be careful, most of those water filters are made of plastic! . And the secondary pollution from the manufacture of the plastic bottles probably adds more to your cancer risk than the bottles themselves....

In the larger scope of things, if you fill your own gas tank, you are probably eclipsing your water borne cancer risk by several orders of magnitude. And again if you drive in rush hour. And again if you go out in the sun. And probably in a dozen other ways. The problem is they say water contaminants 'may cause xxxx', but they don't put it in any perspective.

Love the water here, but also really liked the 'interesting' taste of the well water I grew up on. It was very hard, at least in the years prior to us getting a softener.

[readymade]

From what I understand, hard plastic isn't as bad as soft plastic. Whatever they use to soften the plastic is the real issue and can cause all kinds of problems due to a rise in estrogen levels.

I guess I don't really have any faith in the people to say they're testing the tap water. I imagine if they somehow saved money, they could (and would) say anything.

My husband grew up in a neighborhood where they said the water was fine. A LOT of his neighbors up have since gotten cancer (we hear about a new one all the time) and all of his dogs growing up died of cancer. His mom is on some committee that's been fighting... someone... for about 20 years over it.

And, my dad grew up in Woburn, MA where "A Civil Action" (the movie, and the real live events) took place.

So, yeah, I'm a bit paranoid about water. I just don't see a good solution.

[chacha1]

I had wanted to get the PUR water system but noticed it added fluoride to it! I try and stay as far away from swallowing fluoide- in any amounts- as possible. After reading more and more about the dangers of fluoride ingestion....I wonder when some of these water filtration companies will catch on? It is used as the killing agent in pesticides. Horrible that it is actually put into our drinking water- it's poison!

[jobert]

Originally Posted by chacha1

I had wanted to get the PUR water system but noticed it added fluoride to it! I try and stay as far away from swallowing fluoide- in any amounts- as possible. After reading more and more about the dangers of fluoride ingestion....I wonder when some of these water filtration companies will catch on? It is used as the killing agent in pesticides. Horrible that it is actually put into our drinking water- it's poison!

They add flouride because they don't want us ending up with teeth like Austin Powers.

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by readymade

So funny, I'm trying to figure out what to do about water as well. We don't want to drink out of the tap because of the feces, anti-depressents, etc..

And we don't want to drink out of plastic because plastic raises estrogen levels and can cause birth defects.

We bought a PUR water filter thing and it doesn't fit on our tap AND apparently they don't make an adapter for it (went to about 5 stores looking for one). We can't afford an under-the-sink water filter (also, neither of us are handy and I don't think we'd know how to install it. plus, we're renting).

So... what? What do we do?

You really should do more research. It is far too simplistic to say "plastic raises estrogen levels and can cause birth defects."

First of all there are many kinds of plastic. Only polycarbonate (hard plastic) bottles are associated with estrogen-like compounds. And the release of these compounds only occurs when the containers are heated.

And there are a lot of near-hoax like stories about plastics and dioxins. They simply aren't true. Most plastics are absolutely safe.

[readymade]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

You really should do more research. It is far too simplistic to say "plastic raises estrogen levels and can cause birth defects."

First of all there are many kinds of plastic. Only polycarbonate (hard plastic) bottles are associated with estrogen-like compounds. And the release of these compounds only occurs when the containers are heated.

And there are a lot of near-hoax like stories about plastics and dioxins. They simply aren't true. Most plastics are absolutely safe.

Well, I respectfully disagree. And I HAVE done research. Certain soft plastics (or rather, the Phthalates that causes the plastic to soften) can cause secondary sexual characteristics. Specifically, they interfere with hormonally-driven reproductive development. And, yes, certain (read: most) hard plastics cause a spike in estrogen levels as well.

I try to avoid ANY kind of plastic as much as I can. 5 years ago, I didn't know about these issues with plastic. What will I find out in 5 MORE years?

If I was being "simplistic" it's because I'm on an Austin forum. Not a scientific lecture.

[CptnRn]

I do not hesitate to drink the Austin tap water, it is some of the purest in the nation.