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We live on tap water and always assumed that the water quality would be flawless here in US. But after reading such stories, I subscribe to the idea of buying b

We live on tap water and always assumed that the water quality would be flawless here in US. But after reading such stories, I subscribe to the idea of buying bottled water or refillable purified tap water. Now I will have to research if refillable RO water shops can actually clear water or has any lead or any other contamination in it.

Pxtl 11y ago
Don't follow guesswork, be scientific - there are tests for water quality you can apply at your tap.
- srameshc 11y ago
  If you could explain your statement, that would be helpful.
  - pmorici 11y ago
    There are a bunch of water quality testing kits you can get to test the quality of water at your tap. They range in price from DIY that you can get at Home Depot or Walmart for $20 to a kit you send away to a lab that can cost in the $50 to several hundred dollar range depending on the number of things you are testing for.
  - post_break 11y ago
    You can get lead testing kits on amazon. Same for chlorine, bacteria, etc. He basically said don't just follow the hive mind, test your water and get a baseline.
  - cjslep 11y ago
    What more explanation are you wanting? Thanks to that post, I found a few different heavy metal tests on Amazon [0] for a general indication of quality. It also looks like I could also ask one of quite a few local labs if I trusted them and wanted a more in depth set of results [1]. [0] http://www.amazon.com/Sensafe-480309-SenSafe-Heavy-Metals/dp/B002AGZXYA http://www.amazon.com/Sensafe-480309-SenSafe-Heavy-Metals/dp... [1] https://www.calwater.com/waterquality/water-quality-testing-labs/ https://www.calwater.com/waterquality/water-quality-testing-...
    - srameshc 11y ago
      What part of my comment implied I am doing a guess work.
  - Pxtl 11y ago
    Unless you live in flint or some other place with a water emergency, you have know way of knowing that your water is unsafe. You spendany tax dollars on safe tap water, and so you should exploit that... But if you don't trust the tap water, buy tests to find out if it is unsafe or not.
matwood 11y ago
The city I live in sends out semi-annual or quarterly water test results. Of course they could be doctored, but I doubt it.
- maxerickson 11y ago
  The city quality report will not pick up chemicals that enter the water from your service line and plumbing (these are both potential sources of lead). Testing what comes out of a given tap is not incredibly expensive, state health and environmental departments usually have information about it.
  - analog31 11y ago
    At the very least, I would want to know if my house has a lead service pipe. Several years ago in my locale, the city identified every house with a lead pipe, and replaced all of them. This doesn't eliminate lead solder used on copper pipes within the house. I suppose one could strategically identify the portion of the plumbing used for drinking water, and replace it with lead free. I think Flint may have been an accident waiting to happen -- hoping that nothing would ever disrupt the passivation built up inside the pipes. I think that replacing lead service pipes nationwide sounds like a public works project. Putting the people of Flint to work replacing their own pipes would bring more than just clean water to the city.
pmorici 11y ago
I didn't assume it but many cities including Baltimore for example send out yearly water testing reports with the water bills. These reports always gave me the impression that the water was safe. What is news to me and I think a lot of people after reading the Flint story is that those city level tests are deceiving because they don't account for stuff that gets into the water between the reservoir and your tap which is how all the lead is getting into the water in Flint.
dalke 11y ago
> I subscribe to the idea of buying bottled water Quoting from http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/qbw.asp http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/qbw.asp : > 1. Isn't bottled water safer than tap water? > No, not necessarily. NRDC conducted a four-year review of the bottled water industry and the safety standards that govern it, including a comparison of national bottled water rules with national tap water rules, and independent testing of over 1,000 bottles of water. Our conclusion is that there is no assurance that just because water comes out of a bottle it is any cleaner or safer than water from the tap. And in fact, an estimated 25 percent or more of bottled water is really just tap water in a bottle -- sometimes further treated, sometimes not. > 2. Is bottled water actually unsafe? > Most bottled water appears to be safe. Of the bottles we tested, the majority proved to be high quality and relatively free of contaminants. The quality of some brands was spotty, however, and such products may pose a health risk, primarily for people with weakened immune systems (such as the frail elderly, some infants, transplant and cancer patients, or people with HIV/AIDS). About 22 percent of the brands we tested contained, in at least one sample, chemical contaminants at levels above strict state health limits. If consumed over a long period of time, some of these contaminants could cause cancer or other health problems. Don't forget also that there's a lot of plastic waste with bottled water, and the cost is enormous. The pure tap water I drink is cheap enough that I also use it to bathe in and water my plants. Even purified tap water isn't that cheap. This price difference means there is a strong business interest to privatize water. (See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_privatization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_privatization ). One of these companies is Nestlé Waters. Nestlé, like other private water companies, are bringing in loads of bottled water to Flint. This has the dual purpose of humanitarian support, and getting the idea across that bottled water is a solution over untrustworthy city water. What an amazing coincidence that Deborah Muchmore, the wife of Gov. Rick Snyder’s ex-Chief of Staff Dennis Muchmore, was also spokesperson for Nestle Waters in Michigan. I think this alignment of interests is a natural consequence of believing that a (democratic) government should be run more like a(n autoritarian) business.
- bluejekyll 11y ago
  > Rick Snyder’s ex-Chief of Staff Dennis Muchmore, was also spokesperson for Nestle Waters in Michigan While this sounds like a crazy conspiracy theory, I honestly can't think of any other reason why a politician would almost certainly destroy their career over something like this.
outworlder 11y ago
I've recently moved to the US and cannot bring myself to drink tap water. Even though I consciously know that it should be safe, it is as if I was trying to drink water from the toilet. Years of living in a country with untrustworthy tap water do that to you. Now, the way it is usually done in the US is very wasteful. I mean, packs of bottled water at CostCo? We used returnable 5 gallon containers...
- jpindar 11y ago
  Most grocery stores have disposable gallon (and sometimes 5 gallon) containers of water, which is at least better than small bottles. There are also 5 gallon water cooler bottles which you exchange when empty.

Pxtl 11y ago

Don't follow guesswork, be scientific - there are tests for water quality you can apply at your tap.

srameshc 11y ago
If you could explain your statement, that would be helpful.
- pmorici 11y ago
  There are a bunch of water quality testing kits you can get to test the quality of water at your tap. They range in price from DIY that you can get at Home Depot or Walmart for $20 to a kit you send away to a lab that can cost in the $50 to several hundred dollar range depending on the number of things you are testing for.
- post_break 11y ago
  You can get lead testing kits on amazon. Same for chlorine, bacteria, etc. He basically said don't just follow the hive mind, test your water and get a baseline.
- cjslep 11y ago
  What more explanation are you wanting? Thanks to that post, I found a few different heavy metal tests on Amazon [0] for a general indication of quality. It also looks like I could also ask one of quite a few local labs if I trusted them and wanted a more in depth set of results [1]. [0] http://www.amazon.com/Sensafe-480309-SenSafe-Heavy-Metals/dp/B002AGZXYA http://www.amazon.com/Sensafe-480309-SenSafe-Heavy-Metals/dp... [1] https://www.calwater.com/waterquality/water-quality-testing-labs/ https://www.calwater.com/waterquality/water-quality-testing-...
  - srameshc 11y ago
    What part of my comment implied I am doing a guess work.
- Pxtl 11y ago
  Unless you live in flint or some other place with a water emergency, you have know way of knowing that your water is unsafe. You spendany tax dollars on safe tap water, and so you should exploit that... But if you don't trust the tap water, buy tests to find out if it is unsafe or not.

matwood 11y ago

The city I live in sends out semi-annual or quarterly water test results. Of course they could be doctored, but I doubt it.

maxerickson 11y ago
The city quality report will not pick up chemicals that enter the water from your service line and plumbing (these are both potential sources of lead). Testing what comes out of a given tap is not incredibly expensive, state health and environmental departments usually have information about it.
- analog31 11y ago
  At the very least, I would want to know if my house has a lead service pipe. Several years ago in my locale, the city identified every house with a lead pipe, and replaced all of them. This doesn't eliminate lead solder used on copper pipes within the house. I suppose one could strategically identify the portion of the plumbing used for drinking water, and replace it with lead free. I think Flint may have been an accident waiting to happen -- hoping that nothing would ever disrupt the passivation built up inside the pipes. I think that replacing lead service pipes nationwide sounds like a public works project. Putting the people of Flint to work replacing their own pipes would bring more than just clean water to the city.

pmorici 11y ago

I didn't assume it but many cities including Baltimore for example send out yearly water testing reports with the water bills. These reports always gave me the impression that the water was safe. What is news to me and I think a lot of people after reading the Flint story is that those city level tests are deceiving because they don't account for stuff that gets into the water between the reservoir and your tap which is how all the lead is getting into the water in Flint.

dalke 11y ago

> I subscribe to the idea of buying bottled water Quoting from http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/qbw.asp http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/qbw.asp : > 1. Isn't bottled water safer than tap water? > No, not necessarily. NRDC conducted a four-year review of the bottled water industry and the safety standards that govern it, including a comparison of national bottled water rules with national tap water rules, and independent testing of over 1,000 bottles of water. Our conclusion is that there is no assurance that just because water comes out of a bottle it is any cleaner or safer than water from the tap. And in fact, an estimated 25 percent or more of bottled water is really just tap water in a bottle -- sometimes further treated, sometimes not. > 2. Is bottled water actually unsafe? > Most bottled water appears to be safe. Of the bottles we tested, the majority proved to be high quality and relatively free of contaminants. The quality of some brands was spotty, however, and such products may pose a health risk, primarily for people with weakened immune systems (such as the frail elderly, some infants, transplant and cancer patients, or people with HIV/AIDS). About 22 percent of the brands we tested contained, in at least one sample, chemical contaminants at levels above strict state health limits. If consumed over a long period of time, some of these contaminants could cause cancer or other health problems. Don't forget also that there's a lot of plastic waste with bottled water, and the cost is enormous. The pure tap water I drink is cheap enough that I also use it to bathe in and water my plants. Even purified tap water isn't that cheap. This price difference means there is a strong business interest to privatize water. (See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_privatization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_privatization ). One of these companies is Nestlé Waters. Nestlé, like other private water companies, are bringing in loads of bottled water to Flint. This has the dual purpose of humanitarian support, and getting the idea across that bottled water is a solution over untrustworthy city water. What an amazing coincidence that Deborah Muchmore, the wife of Gov. Rick Snyder’s ex-Chief of Staff Dennis Muchmore, was also spokesperson for Nestle Waters in Michigan. I think this alignment of interests is a natural consequence of believing that a (democratic) government should be run more like a(n autoritarian) business.

bluejekyll 11y ago
> Rick Snyder’s ex-Chief of Staff Dennis Muchmore, was also spokesperson for Nestle Waters in Michigan While this sounds like a crazy conspiracy theory, I honestly can't think of any other reason why a politician would almost certainly destroy their career over something like this.

outworlder 11y ago

I've recently moved to the US and cannot bring myself to drink tap water. Even though I consciously know that it should be safe, it is as if I was trying to drink water from the toilet. Years of living in a country with untrustworthy tap water do that to you. Now, the way it is usually done in the US is very wasteful. I mean, packs of bottled water at CostCo? We used returnable 5 gallon containers...

jpindar 11y ago
Most grocery stores have disposable gallon (and sometimes 5 gallon) containers of water, which is at least better than small bottles. There are also 5 gallon water cooler bottles which you exchange when empty.