Do you drink tap water? (poll)

In My Humble Opinion
21

I currently live in the Pacific NW in a city where our water is relatively decent and I do often drink tap water. I prefer to fill our water cooler jugs with the 8-stage filtered water available for .35 cents a gallon at the grocery store, but if I don’t get around to it, I refill them at the tub tap.

Our water comes from an aquifer and is minimally treated (lower levels of chlorine and no added fluoride to date).

Now, when I lived in my hometown of Houston for several years recently (actually just outside of Houston in Pasadena) I WOULD have licked a rat before drinking the tap water! I filled our jugs at the filtered water machines.

Why? One, the water tasted HORRIBLE! Very strong, chemical taste.

Two, I read the water reports the city sent out every year and otherwise knew what was IN the stuff. High levels of chlorine, flouride (which, thanks, I DON’T want in my drinking water…not going to get into that debate here too much, but in general I don’t want anything in my water but WATER, and in particular, I don’t want it dosed with a potentially toxic substance which it readily available in other forms for those who choose to use it), arsenic, lead, benzene, etc, etc.

Esp. in the are where we lived, which is often called the petrochemical refining capital of the world, there was some disturbing shit in the water (at “acceptable levels”, of course, but imo, there IS no acceptable level of poison in something consumed constantly, not if it can be avoided easily.)

The water machines filter “tap” water through an 8-stage process including reverse osmosis (which, along with distillation, is one of the only ways to remove fluroide) and simply remove whatever was intentionally added or happened to contaminate it.

During hurricane Rita, I drank Perrier for 2 days (which I LOATHE!) rather than drink the tap water. The water machines were drained for a few days, unable to keep up with demand and stores were sold out of all bottled water EXCEPT Perrier. :smack:

Other issues I have with tap water is the fact that in most areas, the water purification process involves recycling water used in the sewage system. Obvious gross-out factor aside (puts the idea of drinking from a bathroom faucet to shame;) the problem of pharmaceutical residues in drinking water supplies is one I’d rather avoid. Not only do people improperly dispose of drugs via flushing or dumping down the drain, but traces of everything imaginable end up in our drinking water everytime someone taking a drug uses the toilet.

Of course, tap water can also be contaminated by the pipes carrying it into the home or elsewhere, so it can be a crap-shoot.

And to clarify, I don’t use “BOTTLED” water except very rarely. I refill our cooler jugs and fill our own reusuable bottles.

22

I’ve had plenty of well water - sometimes it’s OK, sometimes it’s nasty. Give me good ol’ city tap water any day. That stuff has been cleaned and tested by scientists so it probably won’t kill me and it doesn’t leave nasty stains on my tub. Some folks I know like to have their tap water filtered through a store bought filter system because the scientists would have never figured out how to do that on their end.

23

You must not be familiar with the all-too-common practice of ass-fauceting. It’s all the rage amongst the young people trying to be European but lacking a bidet.

FTR I’ll drink from any tap/hose/washbucket I can find, but usually prefer water fountains because it comes out cold. At home I don’t even like using my Brita, though.

24

You know that wonderful, glacier-fresh water people like to drink out of bottles? That’s what we have coming out of our taps, and yet tons of people only drink bottled water here. Let’s see, municipal water that is fresh off a glacier, and treated to be safe for humans to drink, with a few additives for human health, that is strictly controlled by governmental agencies for quality and safety, versus questionable water from questionable sources with fewer controls that has to be manufactured and increases waste that you pay a premium price for - tough call. Yeah, I drink tap water.

25

I drink tap.

I live in an area with good tap water, so I keep a two gallon dispenser and a couple of reusable bottles in the fridge all of the time.

I’ve traveled to places with nasty water. I can sympathize with those of you living in certain parts of Texas and Florida (when I was a kid, the first tap water I ever drank in my grandparents’ Sarasota winter home literally gagged me to the point of vomiting) and would probably have a really good filtering system if I lived there.

26

Wow, I will be sure to check the faucets in the bathroom before filling up my bottle from now on! I wasn’t aware of the fad of hanging your bare, dirty ass in a semi-public bathroom sink! :stuck_out_tongue:

27

I drink tap water at home but I use a Brita on it as I have a well. At work, I exclusively drink bottled water because a) the water tastes funny and b) the building I work in is built on a Superfund site. Don’t know if that’s why the water tastes funny or not…

28

We have lived full time in our motor home for over 7 years and during travels all over the U.S. have used the tap water for drinking and cooking.

We do have a whole house filter with a 5 micron charcoal filter that the house water goes through. It removes chlorine and things that cause the water to taste odd.

In areas where the water is hard (AZ and NV are two states with areas that have very hard water - over 50 grains per gallon) we bring out our RV water softener. It will last from 10 days to 30 days depending on how hard the water is before it has to be regenerated. That takes one box of common table salt we get at the grocery store.

IMHO bottled water is one of the biggest con jobs around.
See here http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/bw/exesum.asp and here
http://www.ewg.org/reports/BottledWater/Bottled-Water-Quality-Investigation for info on bottled water.

29

Depends where I am. The tap water at my house IMO tastes awful, like chlorine. However, when it goes through the carbon filter on my fridge it tastes just fine. If I didn’t have that, I don’t think I’d buy bottled water (for home), but I would at least get a filter. At work, I drink only bottled water, mostly because it’s cold, it’s good, it’s easy to transport (I tend to spill anything without a cover) and it’s cheap. The wholesale cost on a bottle is IIRC 12.5¢ and I only drink one or two a day.

30

On the rare occasions I drink water, I use tap water. Here, at least; the last place I lived had well water that tasted rather bad.

31

Not “IMO”, it is one of the biggest con jobs around. The companies were like 'HOLEE FUCK! These people are getting water for free!" And so we drink billions of gallons of bottled of water and throw away who knows how many plastic bottles every year. And these are people who otherwise claim to love the environment!

I bought a Camelbak water bottle, that doesn’t spill and has one of those tops you bite on and suck to get the water out. I fill this up three times at work from the fountain. At home I have another. I keep a pitcher of water in the fridge which I fill up from the tap.

I prefer the taste, and I know I am not wasting all of those water bottles. And I drink way more water than I would in the bottles.

People need to realize what a total scam bottled water is. This isn’t a Third World Country. We have good water.

32

We have some of the best tap water in the nation here in Columbia, SC as well. I love it. I drink it all the time and don’t understand why on earth the “green committee” at work proposed we put a filter on a faucet in the staff room so people wouldn’t have to bring bottled water.

On the other hand, my parents have gross-ass water in their Florida house and I don’t even like to brush my teeth with that.

33

I don’t like the tap water where I currently live (mid-UK) - tastes full of chlorine. It’s OK in orange squash [cordial] but straight it’s really not pleasant. Back home where my folks live (eastern UK) I’d happily drink gallons of the stuff.

At work we have a water filter and I only use that.

34

If your water has a chlorine taste put it in a pitcher and stick it in the fridge overnight. The chlorine taste will dissipate overnight.

35

Chicago has great tap water, but the pipes in my office give it a crappy taste, and a dripping sink in a storage room here shows how much mineral crud there is, so I’ll only drink it at work if it’s out of the drinking fountain since that has extra filtration and tastes decent.

My home water tastes so-so, so if I’m drinking it straight I run it through the Brita pitcher first, or use it unfiltered for making coffee.

36

I think bottled water tastes funny. It’s got an aftertaste or something?

I drink Cleveland water. I think it’s fan-fucking-tastic.

My brother had a water softener at his house for a while. He kept up with the salt and everything. His water used to taste funny too, until he got rid of the water softener.

37

I filter my tap water.

38

I’ve been in places where I didn’t drink the tap water, but in general I have no problem with it. At home I drink it with almost every meal.

39

I drink tap water, but only filtered. Florida water has been shown to reduce sperm counts by 50%, so I’m not just being panicky.

Anyway, Florida water is barely drinkable compared to the tap water I was used to in the UK. I wasn’t much impressed by the vaunted water of New York, either (though it runs cold, at least).

40

True, as will filling a water cooler jug with it, which is what I often do. It’s not just the taste that dissapates, but the chlorine itself (why you can leave tap water out overnight and then use it in a fish tank w/o treating it with chlorine remover or killing the fish).