LA tap water... (Long Beach: neighborhood, live in, safe)

[msnorman67]

Having done some plumbing in the past I can tell you that unless you have some old (sorry, Christina Ricci just walked on in the backgroud) plumbing like cast iron (sorry again, she is really cute). What was I saying? ........

[msnorman67]

Seriously, if you have copper pipes you are good to go. Other pipes are OK too unless they are really corroded (old cast iron maybe). They have to be really bad to effect the quality of the water provided.

[Charles]

The taste may be affected by the type of wax you put on your skiis and snowboard.

A lot of that snow runoff from Chair 16 at Mammoth ends up flowing through your taps after having flowed through the Owens Valley and Mulholland's water system.

[streetscenes]

We use a Pur water filter on the kitchen sink. Use it for drinking water, coffee, cooking, etc. Cuts out the metalic flavor, chlorine and most of the undesirable things that may have gotten in the water between the water department and our house. We have bought water bottles for the kids and use them for soccer practices, etc. Trying to encourage them not to get into the bottled water habit. A couple of nights ago my daughter was stalling in going to bed and said "I'm thirsty". Sent her to the bathroom to get a drink of water. After a sip she yelled out "Yuck, bathroom sink water."

[CESpeed]

I buy bottled for my home because I will not drink tap water, only God knows what poisons and toxins are really in it. Heck, I won't even let my cat drink tap water, he gets bottled, too.

[BRinSM]

I used to work for a construction company that retrofitted many of the local potable water filtration plants. Chlorination for water filtration has just about been completely abandoned. All new plants now use a process called ozonation, which eliminates the bad taste that most people are referring to. So, for those of you who haven't tried your tap water in a while, give it a shot, it will probably taste better than you remember. However, as someone else mentioned, if you have crummy pipes in an older building, there's a good chance your water is still going to taste bad. I used to live in an older building and I remember that the little faucet filters used to get filled with what appeared to be little rocks. I can only imagine that the water line to my sink was either so corroded that dirt could get it in, or that these "rocks" were actually pieces of the water line that had broken off. Also, when I used to leave the apartment for a few days at a time, I remember that I would have to run the water for 10-15 seconds before using the sink or getting in the shower because the water would come out brown at first. Needless to say, I always bought bottled water. Now that I live in Santa Monica, in a somewhat newer yet much better kept building, I drink straight from the tap everyday. The water tastes absolutely fine and I've been doing it for 2 years now. The LADWP and MWD are not to be blamed for bad tasting water.

[lesallimc]

Originally Posted by MisterDuke

I used to have a friend who worked at DWP. She said that water takes on a bad taste when it travels through the pipes in houses, especially older ones. If you were able to taste the water at the main line on the street, it would be fine.

Yes, I know someone at DWP, and he told me the exact same thing. I live in an old house, so I filter the water because the pipes the water flows through within my house is where the water becomes "dirty."

Another thing to think about.... He told me that bottled water does not have the same regulations as tap water, so he told me he wouldn't drink bottled water! Scary!

[ConsideringLA]

Filters in your fridge, PUR/Brita, etc - are all excellent ways to rid the taste.

Just cut back on the bottled water - beyond being an unnecessary expense, it's bad for the environment (the transport to/from bottler to store, recycling them is horrendously difficult). Get a bottle from target and use that...

[the one]

tap water is fine. it does taste better cold and with a squeeze of lime/lemon.
i think its funny how people are afraid of tap water.

so when did arrowhead water and calistoga water and all those other brands become so popular?
i remeber the sparkletts delivery of the 70's. i remeber that if you didnt get it deleivered you could take a 5 gallon jug to a vending maching outside of your local luckys or grocer(80's and early 90's) and in the late 90's(and 2000's) these machines had been fased out mostly and these new "water depots" had sprung up. a whole industry of these water outlets with names like "Wateria" and "AquaPost" appeared.

when did bottled water become so popular? wasnt it a running joke when people drank Evian? im sure more for the snobiness of it all, but it was still bottled water. now it seems common place to drink bottle water.
hmmmmm??????

[salsa311]

so basically, get a filtered pitcher and its fine? i use one here in WI anyway. good deal!