I wonder how many bottled water users have water dispensers on their refrigerator doors. I also wonder how many recycle all of their bottles, especially the ones purchased and consumed on the road.
There’s no reason to buy bottled water unless you dislike the taste of your tap water or you’ve had it tested and know for a fact there’s something harmful in it.
I was born in Chicago and have lived there most of my 50+ years. The only times I’ve experienced bad-tasting Chicago tap water has been in a couple of recent summers. Our summers are mostly sunny, of course, but a couple of them had even more cloudless days than usual. That, combined with clearer lake water, reportedly caused excessive algae growth around the lake water intakes, making the water taste skunky. I found that running the water for a few seconds before filling a glass got rid of the skunkiest water.
I lived on the SF Bay peninsula for a number years and I never had bad tap water anywhere in the area, including SF itself. Maybe that’s a problem in the some East Bay areas, where I never went farther north than Berkeley or farther south than Hayward.
The only place I remember having bad tap water was in one area in Florida where some relatives were living. It was loaded with sulfur and smelled like rotten eggs.
I can’t stand the taste of the water in my house, and a few other places. I’ve tested it for impurities and found nothing. So I drink bottled water, even using it for coffee. If I’m someplace where the water tastes ok, I have no problem drinking it.
I reluctantly, shamefully drink bottled water, but only by the gallon and only because the water here tastes like absolute dogshit, even after going through the $60 filter I bought because I felt guilty about drinking bottled water. You can see shit floating in some of the tap water around here.
That’s what I was thinking of when I posted the OP. My tap water isn’t the greatest, but a Brita Pitcher and a reusable thermal mug… that does the trick.
And I know how bad sulfur well water can be. My ex lived in a northern Wisconsin city and I couldn’t cook with it, shower with it, nothing. It was pretty putrid.
For me, it’s partly because it’s a habit. My parents bought cases of water for as long as I can remember, and that’s what I’ve always had growing up. Also, I lived in LA for awhile, and maybe it was just my apartment, but the water from the tap would come out brown for the first half a minute before running clear. Ew.
I always keep bottled water around because I’ve always lived in earthquake prone areas. It’s handy to have when the water line and sewage line are both broken, and the city water supply is contaminated.
I once tried a filtered pitcher and found it a complete pain in the butt. It took about a year to fill the thing and I either had to let the faucet run into it at a VERY low stream or stand over it pouring in water a tiny bit at a time. It didn’t seem worth taking so much time to get ONE GALLON of water, which would be gone in a flash. So we installed a faucet filter in the kitchen–much better. Eventually, my husband installed an outdoor filtration system that takes care of all the water before it enters the house, so now, even my shower water is clean!
But there are still times I drink bottled, for reasons others have already stated–I’m away from home, I get thirsty, and don’t want a sweet beverage. This is especially true on long trips.
I can taste my tap water. I prefer my water to be tasteless.
I don’t buy just any bottled water. The only ones I find to be tasteless are the ones filtered by reverse osmosis, so I’ve very picky about the water I buy too. I hate spring water, glacier water, and anything “purified” by other means. I’d rather drink tap water.
I noticed the article cited said that Dasani comes from tap water - well, where else would it come from? It’s not sold as spring water. The difference between what came out of the tap and what went in the bottles is the reverse osmosis process.
And yes, I drive my husband and kids crazy. “No, not that one. That’s spring water. No, not that one either”. My kids have tried many times to slip me the wrong water, thinking that I can’t really tell the difference, but no, I CAN!!
Put me down as another whose water has a slight metallic taste that’s fine for making coffee, or tea, or Kool-Aid or whatever, but for drinking, I’ll go with bottled. Plus, I can get it icey-cold from the fridge.
At home, the city supply isn’t very good at all… if you go to KFC and get fountain drink, it better not be 7*UP, or it’ll taste like (sh)city water.
If I need water and I’m on the go, I’ll often buy Aquafina flavored water, since it’s more interesting than plain water.
At home, we have a 5-gallon water cooler, where a jug swap is about $3. we use it for drinking, making juice sometimes (sometimes, we use tapwater for juice), and the pets’ water.
Rarely, I will drink a glass of tapwater, but only if I’m desperate for rehydration.
S^G
I work in Sauget IL and there is no way I’m drinking that tap water. They cleaned up the river that used to catch on fire every summer, a few years ago, but too much contamination in the ground for me to trust the water. And, of course, the Mississippi River gets into the groundwater, too. Yuck.
So I buy bottled water to take to work. I limit myself to a couple of sodas per week, so that’s not an option. And I want to drink more water; having the bottled water there reminds me. I also often grab a bottled water after working out, to drink on the drive home.
And since we recycle now, the bottles just go in the bin when I get home.
We have well water at home – not bad tasting mostly but even with our water softener it’s pretty hard water. Leave a tablespoon of it out for 24 hours and take a sip and you might as well be drinking from the sea.
I drink it out of the refrigerator filter mostly. I am also very prone to kidney stones and therefore rarely drink anything except for filtered or bottled water. I prefer Ozarka if I’m buying a bottle: it’s honest to goodness spring water, it comes in a thinner bottle constructed to use less plastic, it has a pleasant flavor, and it’s usually about ten cents cheaper than Dasani or something similar.
Checking them out, though, it seems they have a decent mineral content. 
My Brita pitcher has an indicator on it that tells you when to change it. I’ve got orange rusty shitty tasting water and the Brita filters out most of the evil that comes out of our well. http://www.amazon.com/Brita-35503-Pitcher-Replacement-Cartridges/dp/B00004SU18
Bottled water has an enormous negative impact on the health of the planet. Home - Jane Goodall : Jane Goodall
The tap water in my hometown in the Scottish Highlands is delicious; here in Glasgow it’s average. If you let it run and add some ice it does the job, and tastes fine in tea so I rarely buy bottled water. I am loathe to pay for something I can get for free!
Yeah, the water here in Glasgow is pretty average, but definitely drinkable and I’d never buy bottled water in place of it. I’ve actually just bought a Brita filter jug to see if that makes it a little bit nicer.
I will admit, though, to a recent trend in my house of buying bottled sparkling water. I’m cutting out caffeinated soft drinks, and it is a really nice alternative. I do recycle the bottles, though, and all the water is Scottish, so it hasn’t come far!
We bottle our own from a Brita filter, re-using stainless steel or thermos-type glass containers (having become suspicious of the health costs and the known environmental costs of plastic).
I work in downtown Washington, DC, where the tapwater smells like the sewage treatment plant settling ponds (no lie). It was recently tested for lead, and the report said that the lead present “fell within the Bush administration’s EPA guidelines for safe drinking water,” which did not inspire me to start guzzling it.
No, it should not inspire you at all. Particularly when kids in your city are getting lead poisoning from the local water.
When we refinanced about 15 years ago, we were required to have the well water tested. I was fully prepared for our house to be condemned because our water is so fuckin’ nasty. However, the water tested fine. We didn’t start using the Brita until about 2 years ago.
I know a lot of people who drink nothing but tap water and have yet to hear of one of them having health problems because of it. Not one. Does anyone out there in Doperland have anecdotal evidence of health problems due to tap water in the US?
To clarify…I get it when an area has been found to be contaminated, like the link to the DC lead issue. I’m talking about people whose water has not been found to be contaminated by any agency.
Sweet Jesus! Now I have to be worried about a government agency contaminating my water!!!??!??!?! 
I drink bottled water sometimes, but usually only when I’m traveling. Otherwise, I have a 20-ounce BPA-free bottle that I refill at work. Incidentally, does anyone have any idea if there’s any benefit to BPA-free things? I got the bottle because it was convenient, but then I started hearing about BPA this and that and wondered how much you’d have to consume or re-use a bottle for it to actually leach into what you’re drinking.