county tap water (refrigerator, water heater, buy)

[acpii]

Do you drink from the tap? If so, do you drink it straight or add a filter or boil it? If not, why not?

[chopps]

We use a Brita water filter due to the hardness of the water even with our water softener.

[SoCal25]

Bottled water just because it tastes better, though filtered through the refrigerator is ok as well. We try to spread our water sources around to avoid too much of whatever happens to be the contaminate du jour.

[wac_432]

Softened water from the tap. I've got a faucet filter, but it is long expired and does pretty much nothing anyway. If I had a bypass, I'd drink straight hard water. Tasty and nutritious with a ridiculous load of calcium!

Infants get boiled tap water from a thermal pot.

Bottled water is ridiculously bad for the environment and expensive for zero health gain.

[nightlysparrow]

I've seen the water report for Calleguas Municipal Water District and there was nothing worrying. You can get a report from any of the water boards.

[SoCal25]

I fully realize tap water is safe to drink, but it does have contaminates - just at safe levels. I just choose to mix up my water supply to spread the risk so to speak. I also choose to avoid artificial preservatives, pesticides and other environmental toxins - not that I think non-organic lettuce will kill you - nor do I think organic food is without its own sets of risks. Again, I just prefer to minimize and diversify my risks. I'm cognizant of the downside of water bottles, but I have the 5 gallon ones delivered so they are reused. Yes, they are plastic which has issues but the volume minimizes the surface area contact. I like the taste of coffee made with bottled water better and its affordable so its a choice I make fully aware of the downsides.

[wac_432]

The biggest cost (and environmental cost) of bottled water--of any kind--is transportation, and the huge amount of pollutants generated in moving it from place to place. That's usually done by truck or train, not pipeline.

I wonder how they manufacture, clean, and decide when to dispose of those reusable bottles. I bet they're made in China, and I would assume they probably blast them with pretty harsh chemicals when cleaning them. It's certainly safer to expose your customers to low levels of carcinogens that are harder to trace, than to bacteria which can be easily identified and tracked. Looking around at some of the popular companies, I see a note on one website that the FDA regulates bottled water "to the same standards" as municipal water, but I can't find any published quality tests which note ppb of undesirable pollutants. Also, the EPA regulates municipal water, so the standards aren't really the same. I would probably trust the EPA over the FDA, anyway, considering all the people sickened every year by tainted food that got past the FDA. Finally, it looks like the FDA doesn't regulate bottled water that doesn't cross state lines, so Arrowhead water in CA is probably totally unregulated. Scary.

This might be anti-bottled-water propaganda, but it's worth a read:
Bottled Water Vs. Tap Water: Rethink What You Drink | Reader's Digest - Part 2 | Reader's Digest
Quality probably depends on the factory where the bottled water was filtered, so I imagine it's nigh impossible for the consumer to check without doing the tests themselves.

My local water supply puts out their test results online, so at least I know how it stacks up, rather than just trusting corporate America...

You are free to do as you wish, but be aware of ALL the downsides. Maybe somebody here could shed some light on how bottled water companies stack up against municipal water systems in recent tests?

[SoCal25]

Originally Posted by wac_432

The biggest cost (and environmental cost) of bottled water--of any kind--is transportation, and the huge amount of pollutants generated in moving it from place to place. That's usually done by truck or train, not pipeline.

I wonder how they manufacture, clean, and decide when to dispose of those reusable bottles. I bet they're made in China, and I would assume they probably blast them with pretty harsh chemicals when cleaning them. It's certainly safer to expose your customers to low levels of carcinogens that are harder to trace, than to bacteria which can be easily identified and tracked. Looking around at some of the popular companies, I see a note on one website that the FDA regulates bottled water "to the same standards" as municipal water, but I can't find any published quality tests which note ppb of undesirable pollutants. Also, the EPA regulates municipal water, so the standards aren't really the same. I would probably trust the EPA over the FDA, anyway, considering all the people sickened every year by tainted food that got past the FDA. Finally, it looks like the FDA doesn't regulate bottled water that doesn't cross state lines, so Arrowhead water in CA is probably totally unregulated. Scary.

This might be anti-bottled-water propaganda, but it's worth a read:
Bottled Water Vs. Tap Water: Rethink What You Drink | Reader's Digest - Part 2 | Reader's Digest
Quality probably depends on the factory where the bottled water was filtered, so I imagine it's nigh impossible for the consumer to check without doing the tests themselves.

My local water supply puts out their test results online, so at least I know how it stacks up, rather than just trusting corporate America...

You are free to do as you wish, but be aware of ALL the downsides. Maybe somebody here could shed some light on how bottled water companies stack up against municipal water systems in recent tests?

I get it, you don't like bottled water. And yes I read the water test results in my city and I note that it has contaminates such as perchlorate. I don't freak out about it, but nor do I want it to be my only water source. It's also not like there's never been an incident with municipal water or that it is risk free. NRDC: Study Finds Safety of Drinking Water in U.S. Cities at Risk Bottled water also has the advantage of providing a nice 40 gallon rotating stock of fresh water for disaster preparedness. I also enjoy various sparkling waters that I buy in glass one liter bottles.

I get that transportation has environmental costs, but we all pick and choose our ways of minimizing environmental impacts. I also get that you're particularly passionate in your position against bottled water, but I've made a reasoned choice in this matter, let it go.

[wac_432]

I'm just giving all readers the reasoning behind my position. I don't care what you, in particular, do.

Contrary to my environmental position, I would get my bottled water from out-of-state, if I were to get bottled water, thus ensuring that it was subject to FDA regulations.

[wac_432]

The emergency supply is a good point. Also, don't forget that your hot water heater tank can provide an additional reserve, so long as you know how to disconnect it so that you can control the drain. Google it sometime. I wrote instructions and taped them to mine, just in case I forgot or someone else in the household needs to do it.