3 ms·

I’m curious: if the water isn’t considered potable, would you want to be watering plants with it? Is the contamination more often bacterial than chemical?

OfSanguineFire 3y ago
People all over the world water plants with water that is not potable itself due to bacterial or viral contamination. This is where the old traveler’s adage “Boil it, cook it, peel it, or forget it” comes from. If the groundwater is not potable because of e.g. arsenic or pesticide contamination, I think that homeowners are usually aware of that and therefore are more likely to use the water only for washing purposes.
- eric-hu 3y ago
  Right, I could have stated more explicitly. Watering possibly edible plants with pathogen polluted water seems okay. Watering them with chemically polluted water seems like maybe a way to ingest toxic stuff. Washing dishes seems dicey too.
- lost_tourist 3y ago
  Everyone I know with personal wells here in the US does water tests at least once a year, sometimes more often.
cj 3y ago
My friend has a condo in the Virgin Islands where water isn’t in high supply (majority of water is sourced from rain) The HOA where the condo is has an on-site water sanitation facility which recycles toilet, shower, sink water. They don’t consider the recycled water potable, but I guess they consider it safe enough for watering plants, for re-use in toilet water, etc. TLDR: in the above case, it’s bacterial risk or the use of a water sanitization facility that doesn’t provide guarantee around portability.
- eric-hu 3y ago
  Yeah that seems reasonable enough to me. I’ve seen parks and green spaces in Southern California that have warning signs about not drinking irrigation water. My earlier comment was motivated by a concern that tapping a non-potable water source for one’s own family might bear health risks without more analysis of the state of that water. For all you know, even if you only use that water for plants, maybe you’re growing food with water high in arsenic and it’s accumulating in the food.

OfSanguineFire 3y ago

People all over the world water plants with water that is not potable itself due to bacterial or viral contamination. This is where the old traveler’s adage “Boil it, cook it, peel it, or forget it” comes from. If the groundwater is not potable because of e.g. arsenic or pesticide contamination, I think that homeowners are usually aware of that and therefore are more likely to use the water only for washing purposes.

eric-hu 3y ago
Right, I could have stated more explicitly. Watering possibly edible plants with pathogen polluted water seems okay. Watering them with chemically polluted water seems like maybe a way to ingest toxic stuff. Washing dishes seems dicey too.
lost_tourist 3y ago
Everyone I know with personal wells here in the US does water tests at least once a year, sometimes more often.

cj 3y ago

My friend has a condo in the Virgin Islands where water isn’t in high supply (majority of water is sourced from rain) The HOA where the condo is has an on-site water sanitation facility which recycles toilet, shower, sink water. They don’t consider the recycled water potable, but I guess they consider it safe enough for watering plants, for re-use in toilet water, etc. TLDR: in the above case, it’s bacterial risk or the use of a water sanitization facility that doesn’t provide guarantee around portability.

eric-hu 3y ago
Yeah that seems reasonable enough to me. I’ve seen parks and green spaces in Southern California that have warning signs about not drinking irrigation water. My earlier comment was motivated by a concern that tapping a non-potable water source for one’s own family might bear health risks without more analysis of the state of that water. For all you know, even if you only use that water for plants, maybe you’re growing food with water high in arsenic and it’s accumulating in the food.