# $6.03 for a gallon of water?!!! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 4, 2004, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-03-for-a-gallon-of-water/248608 "2004-06-04T12:59:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2004, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-03-for-a-gallon-of-water/248608/41 "2004-06-06T21:04:31Z")
I remember when we used to go to my friend’s camp up in Clarion PA back in high school. You had to bring bottled water-the local tap would give you amoebas. ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-03-for-a-gallon-of-water/248608/42 "2004-06-07T12:27:53Z")
Do you mean something else, **Guin**? I have never heard of anyone having a case of amoebas. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-03-for-a-gallon-of-water/248608/43 "2004-06-07T17:48:15Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > Since we only ever drink water, and only out of bottles, our glasses have become obsolete. My fridge freezer is so stocked with frozen, half-frozen, and getting-ready-to-be-frozen plastic bottles that there’s no room for any food. We bought an upright freezer specifically for food. > > It’s very weird, and might seem obsessive (maybe even white-trashy), but we now drink a LOT of water, whereas before I started doing this, we both hated water. I can think back to when I’d go for several months if not years at a time and never drink a drop of water, and then only if I was taking a pill. > > If I’m out and about and have no water with me and get thirsty, I’ll buy another bottled water, but I’ll make sure the bottle itself is sturdy so it will last repated freezings/meltings, and has a good cap, preferably one that will fit some of the other bottles so I don’t have to play which-cap-fits-which-bottle? when I wash them. I used to do the same thing, until I found an ice tray that makes ice **tubes** specifically designed for sticking in water bottles. It makes 27 of them (9 x 3), and they’re about 4 inches high. I got it at Bed, Bath & Beyond for a couple of bucks. Very handy. I don’t like my water too cold, so I just stick one or two in. I also refill my store-bought bottles with local tap water, and all I drink is water, other than coffee or tea in the morning. I gave up soda about two years ago. Like you, the thought of drinking a whole glass of water was sheer torture. Now, it’s all I drink. Baltimore’s water is supposed to be very good, and I think it tastes just fine. I honestly can’t taste much difference between tap water and some of the bottled waters (Poland Spring, Dannon, etc.). If I’m out and have finshed off the water I brought with me, and there’s no where to refill my bottle, I have no problem buying one, but yeah, the bottle has to be sturdy for refillings, and it has to fit in my car’s cupholder. I don’t like those enourmous bottles. I won’t buuy the most expensive stuff like Perrier (hate that!) or even Evian, but whatever’s cheapest. **kung fu lola** , I’ve seen Volvic here. Can you not get it where you are? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-03-for-a-gallon-of-water/248608/44 "2004-06-07T18:41:51Z")
> [@Bad News Baboon](#): > > Do you mean something else, **Guin**? > > I have never heard of anyone having a case of amoebas. Well, that’s how one of my professors described what happened to him when he got sick drinking local water down in Central America-he always says he had amoebas. And my friend’s mom said there were amoebas or whatever you call them in the water, and that’s why you couldn’t drink it. I don’t know-I wasn’t too keen on trying to prove her right or wrong, if you’ll imagine. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-03-for-a-gallon-of-water/248608/45 "2004-06-07T19:01:40Z")
A child swimming in a really nasty pool here had some single celled creatures enter his ear and kill him. That sure as hell sounds like an urban legend… ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-03-for-a-gallon-of-water/248608/46 "2004-06-07T19:15:18Z")
One gets a case of [amoebic dysentary](http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/travel/diseases/amoebic_dysentery.htm) is, I believe, how that’s usually put. ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-03-for-a-gallon-of-water/248608/47 "2004-06-07T20:38:05Z")
ah, that’s how I have heard it: dysentary. I have never heard of 'the amoebas", hence my confussion. ---
**Author:** ![DogMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9c0ed/32.png) [@DogMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DogMom)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-03-for-a-gallon-of-water/248608/48 "2004-06-08T14:01:44Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > I fill bottles halfway with Britta water and put them in the freezer. When they’re frozen I take them out, let them melt down a little, top them off with more Britta, then put them in the fridge. I have a constantly rotating stock of iced water that we drink here and take with us when we go to the movies. AH! What a GREAT idea! I have to start doing this. DogDad loves iced lemon-water (and we can get the ReaLemon juice in the mega-bottles), and this would be a fantastic way to keep him in stock! Never thought of trying this. Thanks for the idea! NOW I gotta get more bottles, though. \ ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-03-for-a-gallon-of-water/248608/49 "2004-06-08T14:17:52Z")
> [@](#): > > **Guinastasia** said: > And my friend’s mom said there were amoebas or whatever you call them in the water, and that’s why you couldn’t drink it. I don’t know-I wasn’t too keen on trying to prove her right or wrong, if you’ll imagine. This would be more expected in a country that lacks regulation of water suppliers and the means to thoroughly treat the water, and if it were happneing in Pennsylvania, it’s defintely something that the DER (Department of Environmental Resources) should be made aware of. Unsanitary water in a municipal supply is a very bad thing, and the DER usually will not tolerate it for long. This is something that can happen due to water main breaks or faulty equipment at the plant, but it’s not usually an ongoing problem. If they still believe the water’s unsafe, they should contact the DER or their county health deparment to find out how to bottle and where to send a sample for testing. If the water came from a well on the property, the well owner is considered to be the ‘water supplier’ and in those cases testing should be carried out by a lab and the water treated on premises such that it is fit for drinking, which is what I had to do in my new house because there is a well. There are still sulfur reducing bacteria in the water, which makes it smell a bit funny and taste bad, but the water is deemed safe to drink because sulfur reducing bacteria apparently pose no health risk. All the other levels have been verified safe after purification in the house, but the water is still a bit high in contaminants to drink straight from the well. We Brita the water just to get rid of the taste, which we chose to do over installing a carbon filter on the softener system because we find we only need to filter the drinking water, so the extra expense of carbon filters for the rest of the water in the house wasn’t warranted. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-03-for-a-gallon-of-water/248608.md?page=2)