Where does Orlando's tap water come from? (best city, home)

[DavieJ89]

I saw a discussion over on the Las Vegas forum about the tap water there and how nasty it is

I personally dont think OUR tap water here in Orlando is nasty. But that thread got me thinking...where does Orange County and Orlando get its water from? Does anybody know?

[DarkWolf]

I Remember when i visited Florida there were lots of Lakes and Reservoirs. I think there are also underground aquifers, since i saw alot of water towers.

[boy3365]

Bleach....


Seriously, I have to use a filter here unless I am really thirsty exercising or something and don't care. When I am in my home state, I drink straight from the tap.

[Parrotrosie]

Your tap water here is very nasty...sorry. I come from PA and the water there is awesome. I can't choke down tap water here if I tried. It has to be filtered. GAK! There are restaurants I go to around here and I can tell who filters their water for soda/iced tea and who does not. It's bad...I can't tell you where it comes from (I have heard aquafers as well) for sure but...yuk.

Many places use chlorine as a sanitizer...it should not make the water taste bad. And that is not the taste here...The water here also begins to smell bad if left in the pipes say, over the weekend or on vacation without being run. That was not the case up north. I don't know what the issue is here but...I filter all my drinking and cooking water.

[Parrotrosie]

Oohhh...here is a nice PDF brochure all about our water

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/dri...chure-2008.pdf

[GloryB]

Thanks Parrotrosie....since I had no idea! It really isn't the best city water I've ever had. It's not awful....but not really good for tap drinking at all. It is the first time that I actually buy extra water to cook and make coffee with instead of just drinking water.

[Parrotrosie]

Originally Posted by GloryB

Thanks Parrotrosie....since I had no idea! It really isn't the best city water I've ever had. It's not awful....but not really good for tap drinking at all. It is the first time that I actually buy extra water to cook and make coffee with instead of just drinking water.

LOL...yes, I agree! Apparently it is quite the long and interesting process, and it is quite potable and safe to drink...but....bleh! But a Pur filter on the tap (and I have a filter in the fridge) gets rid of the bad taste and makes it just fine to drink for me. And that is still alot cheaper than bottles for all the water we drink around here! Plus, I have a plastic hangup......even though it gets recycled here......

[Practice]

The reason the water here is not as good as some other places is because most of Florida is essentially swamp lands. A lot of the urban areas are built on top of swamps, so what we get is basically swamp water. It has to be filtered and/or chlorinated a lot to be good. Water out of the tap is pretty bad, so I use one of the popular water filters and just use that - makes the water taste just fine. So yeah it takes a little more effort to get good water here.

[TehB33nz]

I am not sure where the water comes from but as far as taste I think it is fine. I grew up here in Florida and have always drank water out of the tap. One of my roomates who grew up in Mississippi, thinks that the water taste weird. I went to Mississippi with her a few months ago and thought that their water did not taste good. I think it just depends on what you are used to. I tend to drink the water that is filtered through our fridge, but I would have no problem drinking water directly from the faucet either, since that is what we did growing up, before filters were available.

[Pete C]

I think the water in the south in general is bad. It is bad in Georgia too. I was recently up there and the water had that battery acid smell like it sometimes does here.