Houston water is contaminated

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Did you taste it? It's probably just unicorn blood, I hear there's a secret unicorn slaughter house inside the loop on the East side of town over by the Bud plant.

[stoneclaw]

Originally Posted by larry609

I have been distilling my Houston water for over a year - and, I have distilled water from my friend's homes in Houston, and have always found the same thing.

A tablespoon of a reddish, oil-ish liquid that won't evaporate in a distiller; tablespoon per gallon.

It smells pretty foul. THIS liquid is the reason that, after you wash your clothes, they don't smell 'fresh'. Mine smell like they have been sitting, wet, for a day or more.

I have found this in each and every gallon of water that I've distilled from any source on the Houston water system.

Does anyone have any idea what it is? (no, it's not the chloramine; that's colorless)

Kind of piggybacking off what Oildog said. I used to work for Houston water department and many times when seeing a reddish/brownish liquid, many of times its rusty pipes of the property. If you dial 311, many times the City/Utility Maintenance will come run a snake and clean it out from the water main at no cost.
It may cost you some $$$, but sometimes, especially as homeowners, residents need to have have the same thing from their end.

I'm not at all trying to say Houston's water doesn't have contaminants, as do many other big cities water do(especially NYC), but the water goes through an orchestrated filtering system and cleaned with bacterial killing chemicals. So the water is actually generally safe, but people don't like the thought of water having to go through so many processes and sterilized with so many chemicals, it takes away from its natural state.

If you want clean water, that's perfect even to drink, go to Colorado Springs Colorado. I grew up there and with the help of the high elevation and natural springs makes Colorado have some of the best water in the country. But people still swear by their bottled water up there so I guess it really doesn't make a difference.

Originally Posted by mikeyyc

Poo from Dallas.

Nice little shot you just took. But I was staying with a friend up in Dallas (Duncanville) and saw the same thing come out of his pipes. So I guess Dallas got someone else's poo too huh?

[tampac66]

And I thought this was going to be a boring thread when I clicked on it....

Unicorns... Aliens... Poop... It's got everything.

[mikeyyc]

Originally Posted by stoneclaw

Nice little shot you just took. But I was staying with a friend up in Dallas (Duncanville) and saw the same thing come out of his pipes. So I guess Dallas got someone else's poo too huh?

Absolutely.

Look at every city up the line, and they all pooped in it. Before Dallas it was Fort Worth and Weatherford.

It's not really a shot, more of a statement of fact. I live in Fort Bend Co. and we pull our water from the Brazos, so we get Bear and Aggie poo as it comes through Waco and Bryan. The only time the water is pure is if you live close enough to the glacier/spring that it originates from.

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by larry609

I have been distilling my Houston water for over a year - and, I have distilled water from my friend's homes in Houston, and have always found the same thing.

A tablespoon of a reddish, oil-ish liquid that won't evaporate in a distiller; tablespoon per gallon.

It smells pretty foul. THIS liquid is the reason that, after you wash your clothes, they don't smell 'fresh'. Mine smell like they have been sitting, wet, for a day or more.

I have found this in each and every gallon of water that I've distilled from any source on the Houston water system.

Does anyone have any idea what it is? (no, it's not the chloramine; that's colorless)

Looks like you're going to be paying a plumber some big bucks, and so is your friend.

[dendrotriton]

Nyc water is some of the cleanest in the nation actually, while Houston is constantly in violation of eps's very loose standards.

I register 160ppm on my tap water, all of which Im guessing is toxins and alpha particles. After going through the reverse osmosis it registers 4ppm.

[jasonamd]

Originally Posted by dendrotriton

Nyc water is some of the cleanest in the nation actually, while Houston is constantly in violation of eps's very loose standards.

I register 160ppm on my tap water, all of which Im guessing is toxins and alpha particles. After going through the reverse osmosis it registers 4ppm.

160ppm of what?

[kickingprop]

Originally Posted by jasonamd

160ppm of what?

X2, is this based on one of those bogus little TDS meters the water softener/RO people use to sell you their product?

OR

Is this 160ppm based on an Ion Chromatograph analysis. 160ppm total dissolved solids could easily include the normal, healthy level of chloride, fluoride, carbonate, sulfate, etc found in almost all of the purest spring waters in Fiji and the French Alps... That is to say, 160ppm means absolutely nothing without context...