STL water quality (St. Louis, Farmington: appliances, houses, water heater)

[Relocatinggal]

Odd question, but I'm curious. Is the water quality decent in St. Louis? Meaning do you drink the tap water? I read the water quality report and it seems decent. It also looks like it's a bit on the hard water side.

The last place I lived had well water and it was absolutely terrible and had borderline dangerous water quality tests. I wouldn't even let my cats drink the stuff. It was a pain to have filters and a water softener and buy bottled water for consumption.

[stlcitygirl]

You can drink the tap water, STL is constantly on the best water in the US list. Check it out: bluesfam123@aol.com

[imperialmog]

It will be on the hard water side due to the subsurface geology of most of the area. almost all of the layers of ground tends to be limestone as the uppermost layer and most layers going down. Though the metro-east and some parts of St. Louis City/County does have shale at the surface. Softer water is only going to be found in an area South of Farmington where the surface rocks are either granite/rhyolite or the sandstone layer that is just above it in the geological column of the region.

One thing that is also relevent is that the pH of water in the area will most likely be higher than most areas, it tends to be around 7.5 out of the tap. A related effect is that acid rain has no effect in most areas around here due to the ground neutralizing rainfall. (though rainfall pH around here isn't as bad as places east and has been rising anyway for a while, but it would only effect plantlife in non limestone/dolomite areas which is only a small part of the area)

[CarrieNeno]

Originally Posted by Relocatinggal

Odd question, but I'm curious. Is the water quality decent in St. Louis? Meaning do you drink the tap water? I read the water quality report and it seems decent. It also looks like it's a bit on the hard water side.

The last place I lived had well water and it was absolutely terrible and had borderline dangerous water quality tests. I wouldn't even let my cats drink the stuff. It was a pain to have filters and a water softener and buy bottled water for consumption.

Igh, my in-laws have well water and the taste/smell is HORRIBLE (Northern Illinois). They also had to add a water softener, so now you can barely rinse the shampoo out! Well water leaves much to be desired!

You know, we drink the tap. Though if I lived in a much older house in the city... I would probably steer away from it after the number of building inspections I have been through. A percentage of the older homes downtown have some type of lead pipe, fixture, solder, or valve in the plumbing. Presence of lead in the drinking water has become a prevalent issue in some of the older downtown houses in recent years...

[Relocatinggal]

Thanks for the responses.

I never considered pH but now I'm going to have to do a little research to learn about it.

I can deal with it being on the hard side as long as it's not like my old house where my water heater (and those of my neighbors) died before they were 4 years old and my appliances had to be descaled every 1-2 weeks because of the build up. Not fun.

I also didn't think about plumbing in older homes, but that's a valid point.

Thanks!

[CarrieNeno]

Originally Posted by Relocatinggal

Thanks for the responses.

I never considered pH but now I'm going to have to do a little research to learn about it.

I can deal with it being on the hard side as long as it's not like my old house where my water heater (and those of my neighbors) died before they were 4 years old and my appliances had to be descaled every 1-2 weeks because of the build up. Not fun.

I also didn't think about plumbing in older homes, but that's a valid point.

Thanks!

Our water isn't hard enough to murder a water heater, though can be the end of a furnace humidifier if distilled isn't used. NOTHING like well. It will be soft compared to what you are used to...

[BoomBoxing]

According to the following link St. Louis won best tasting water in the U.S in 2007. Couldn't find one more recent.

http://www.usmayors.org/75thAnnualMe...se_062507b.pdf

[DinsdalePirahna]

Water is a bit hard. but it tastes great.
Makes excellent bread and pizza crusts.

Too bad they haven't figured out how to make a good tasting pizza

But the local beer (outside of the mass produced A-B Bilge water) is pretty good.

[moorlander]

A-B and Aquafina both have bottling plants here because the H2O is so good.

Pizza here is outstanding btw.

[stlcitygirl]

Can we all just agree that there are different styles of Pizza? Some love STL style, some don't. I happen to LOVE the pizza here. Just like some people like Jersey style, some don't, GET OVER IT!