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What makes water bad to drink? I can think of three things.
1) PCPP - personal care products/pharmaceuticals. All the things we put in us, or on us, to cure ourselves, disinfect ourselves, etc. Most of these things pass through sewage treatment unchanged, or changed for the worse.
The feed water for NYC tap water contains very little of this - it's all snow melt and rain that falls in the Catskills and runs over rock. Unlike many places, where it comes from a river.
2) Nitrates - One is allowed up to 10 mg/l. When I lived out on LI, I tested our water and it was 4.0, not bad. Here in NYC, it averages 0.2. That's great.
Nitrates are what I call an "indicator contaminant." Where you find it, there are also liable to be other things from agricultural and suburban runoff - pesticides, fertilizers, etc. Not much of that up in the Catskills.
3) Disinfection by products - These are compounds like chloroform, collectively known as "trihalomethanes." that result from the reaction of chlorine (not toxic in itself) with humic substances. Like, that which leaches out of dead leaves and such. Not much of that up in the Catskills, either.
Take a look at the annual DEP Drinking Water Report. They can't find anything in our water. They add three things - a dab of caustic soda, to bring the pH into the 7's, about 0.7 mg/l of fluoride, so our teeth don't rot, and a bit of orthophosphate, which discourages the dissolution of lead from old plumbing fittings.
One thing to be concerned about is refilling a used water bottle from the tap. When you drink from a bottle, there's an inevitable 'backwash' where your saliva winds up back in the bottle. Bacteria grow on this. So, get yourself a refillable bottle (glass is best) and wash it with hot soapy water on a regular basis.
Good article Steve. I have one objection:
it's all snow melt and rain that falls in the Catskills and runs over rock. Unlike many places, where it comes from a river.
All this water running over rocks eventually gathers into rivers where it then runs into a reservoir.
Brazen:
NYC has very hard water. It destroys plumbing.
New York City has very soft water...it is rainwater after all. It is only groundwater systems pumped up from limestone beds that makes for hard water.
Last edited by Kefir King; 10-09-2016 at 07:05 AM..
I actually like Poland Spring. It's my favorite bottled water. But it isn't better than NYC water.
Do anyone else get a chemical aftertaste from bottled water? I just chalk it up to the plastic chemicals leaching into the water.
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