No, most water systems are moving away from gas. I just took my gas chlorinators out in August. Most use a stronger form of bleach (sodium hypochlorite). I use calcium hypochlorite tablets. Some use chloramines. But yes, you want the chlorine. There are other disinfecting methods (ozone) but they don’t leave a residual in the water to keep it disinfected as it travels through the distribution system.
I aim to have no chlorine taste in the water while still maintaining a chlorine residual to keep it disinfected in the lines. That’s easy enough for those of us pumping groundwater, but a little trickier for systems on surface water.
The organic components present in surface water interact with the chlorine and produce tastes and odors as a by-product. Sometimes you have to add more chlorine to eliminate those tastes and odors and sometimes it’s too much chlorine. And with surface waters, the condition of the water you’re treating can change several times a day. It’s tricky, but it’s better to have safe water leaving the plant regardless of the taste. Some people are much more sensitive to the taste of chlorine too, and the temperature of the water can accentuate it.
I chose ‘other’ because I prefer filtered water (and have a Brita filter at home that I drink out of) but don’t have a big problem drinking tap. I prefer my water room temp so I dislike tap water with a strong mineral or chlorine taste. I don’t really drink bottled water. I have a Sigg bottle and I carry filtered water with me in that.
I drink a lot of water, or drinks made with water. Unfortunately, the tap water in my house has a taste that I can’t get used to. I’ve tried various filtering systems, and they don’t help. So I buy gallon jugs of distilled water.
But keep in mind that bottled/distilled/purified water starts off as tap water. No, they don’t have a pipe going directly from that pristine brook on the label to their plant in Vernon They just filter it as you could do yourself with a Brita device or some such. I think pharmaceuticals are the hardest thing to get out.
In fact, the Italian police test sewer water to find the neighborhoods out where illicit drug consumption goes on most, but what if the water already has the enzymes from the start?
I drink tap water; usually, the only time I buy bottled water is when I find myself in a situation where I need a bottle in which to store some tap water. Double shift at work, I realize my water bottle was left at home, I’ll buy a bottle of water from the vending machine, then refill it through the rest of the day. My job does provide a nifty cooler/filter connected to the water mains that allows me to fill the bottle with something more pure than normal tap water, but I’ve no problem with filling it at a bathroom tap or a garden hose tap if needed.
Indianapolis-area water is notoriously “hard” but I find it pretty tasty, almost sweet in comparison to bottled waters or other regions’ tap waters (by experience, NYC, Chicago, and Louisville). I do wonder if my preference is due to growing up at a house which had an unfiltered well as its water source; drinking water was usually brown like weak tea, and if it sat for a while, flakes of material would coalesce… but it was good!
Of bottled waters, most are okay, and if I need water or desire something cold from a store cooler, I have no problem buying them… but Dasani, the Coca-Cola product, is nasty. Aquafina (Pepsi)? Aqua Blue (Dr Pepper/7 Up)? The various Nestle brands? The store brands? All fine… but Dasani is horrible. Not sure what they’ve done to it that’s so different from other “mineral enhanced” brands-- after all, I happily drink brown well water with flakes of crap floating in it-- but it tastes nasty.
Of course it’s tap water…tap water which has been purified on site (in my case, by a large machine where I fill my cooler jugs) to remove any contaminants, including those which are added to tap water (chlorine, say, which is not needed given that the water goes directly from the machine into my jugs and then into me with no nasty pipes to travel through).
It sort of amazes me how many people seem not to GET this basic point re’ bottled/site filtered water, who insist that it’s a rip off because it’s “the same water”/comes from a municipal water supply. DUH! :smack:
Yes, it COMES from such a supply (in the case of some bottled waters, say, Aquifina, as opposed to spring water) but it is THEN filtered to remove everything but the WATER itself. (or should be…if the bottler is lying about their filtration process, that’s another issue).
Most people who consume bottled water KNOW it starts out as the same stuff coming out a tap somewhere…they are paying for the filtration process which occurs between the “faucet” and the bottle. They have their reasons for not wanting whatever it is that is filtered out. Someone may not agree that there is any valid reason to not want those substances in their water, but it is specious for them to argue that there is no DIFFERENCE in the two waters. There is (again, unless the bottler is committing fraud and not filtering at all.)
ETA, here in Portland, the feds are forcing the city to COVER our aquifer, citing the risk of cryptosporidian contamination. It’s a very small risk, but CAN potentially be deadly to certain vulnerable individuals. if I had a depressed immune system or other risk factors, that might be a very valid reason to buy water filtered using methods which eliminate any such contamination.
The only point I concede is that buying water in small (or even gallon-sized) plastic bottles is a ridiculous waste of money AND resources. Investing in a few cooler jugs and a cooler or other quality reusable containers to refill in bulk eliminates both those waste streams.
If I could afford (or have room for) a home filtration system as effective as the ones employed by the machines I buy from, I would. I’d love a whole house system like that. But Brita doesn’t cut it for my purposes, nor do carbon filters.
Distillation or reverse osmosis are the only methods which effectively remove fluoride (which, as I said, I don’t want) and drug residues. Both are very costly and large systems, last I checked. So I pay the water guys to filter it for me. .35 a gallon is a very reasonable fee, imo.
I’ve drunk tap water all my life and like it just fine. I’ve lived in Pennsylvania, Denver, and Tucson and never had a problem with the taste. The only bottled water I drink is a couple of bottles I fill from my sink and keep in the fridge if I want ice cold water right away.
No one is saying that here. It’s that people think bottled water is necessarily safer (though it’s less regulated after-spigot). In one survey, Vons generic water had less bacterial contamination than all the name brands, but the tap water had the least. Still, so many people think they’re being healthier by littering the country with plastic Evian bottles.
Many brands are rip-offs not because their source is tap water, but because their filtration is minimal–basically less than what you’d get from Brita at a fraction of the cost. I bet most of the people buying that stuff wouldn’t notice the difference from home filtration in taste if they couldn’t see the packaging.
Really I personally think it’s that most people are just lazy. They can convince themselves to prefer anything, if it’s in a package. Like pre-cut and pre-washed vegetables, that just have so much more opportunity for exposure to human microbes than regular vegetables.
I drink tap water if I’m in a hurry or can’t be bothered waiting for our cooled fridge water (Takes about 2mins to fill a small glass). It’s fine, just a bit warm
Pretty good chance they’re using greywater, especially if it’s a newer building. Water recycling is becoming popular, especially in LEED buildings. (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
