# Has your water been tasting funny lately? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 20, 2013, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-water-been-tasting-funny-lately/650875 "2013-02-20T12:06:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-water-been-tasting-funny-lately/650875/1 "2013-02-20T12:06:43Z")
Sounds yummy huh? 😛 So far none of the articles I’ve read confirmed if this was drinking water. But I wouldn’t want to shower in it either. > **[Residents disgusted after woman's body found in hotel water tank](https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/la-now/story/2013-02-19/residents-disgusted-after-womans-body-found-in-hotel-water-tank)** > > This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. > [@](#): > > Emergency personnel gather on the roof of the Cecil Hotel on Main Street, where the body – believed to be that of Elisa Lam, 21 – was discvered about 10 a.m. by hotel worker responding to a complaint about low water pressure. > > Residents of a downtown L.A. hotel expressed shock after police said the body of a woman was found inside a rooftop water tank. Police said that a Canadian woman who was last seen at a downtown Los Angeles hotel almost three weeks ago might be the victim. A worker at the Cecil Hotel on Main Street discovered the body – believed to be that of Elisa Lam, 21 – about 10 a.m. while responding to a complaint about low water pressure, sources said. > > Annette Suzuki, a San Francisco resident staying at the hotel, was revolted by the discovery of the body. “I heard there that on the roof there was a dead body in the water tank. I’m really disgusted,” she said. “Wouldn’t you be if there was a dead body in the water tank you’re drinking from.” > > Police said the body had not officially been identified. That will be done by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office. > > Sources familiar with the case said it was too early to tell whether the person was the victim of foul play but said the location was being treated as a crime scene. Her body was found in one of four tanks that make up the water supply for the hotel. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-water-been-tasting-funny-lately/650875/2 "2013-02-20T12:14:20Z")
My water comes from a well - I choose not to imagine what might be floating around in the aquifer. It comes out of the tap clear and it tastes like water - what more could I ask?? Still, ick! ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-water-been-tasting-funny-lately/650875/3 "2013-02-20T12:30:22Z")
My granddads well had too much iron to drink. They only used well water for sinks, shower etc. All their faucets and sinks were permanently rust stained. Drinking water came from an open wooden cistern. Tasted ok. No one ever climbed up and looked to see what birds or other critters might be in it. Some things are best left unknown. 😉 Cisterns were used for centuries and provided safer water than the polluted streams. ---
**Author:** ![JerrySTL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e274bd/32.png) [@JerrySTL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerrySTL)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-water-been-tasting-funny-lately/650875/4 "2013-02-20T14:43:33Z")
Unlike the USA which has water towers all over the place, homes in the UK have their own water storage tank in the attic. All kinds of nasty things can get into them. I was advised to only drink water from the kitchen cold water spout as the rest comes from a tank in the attic. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-water-been-tasting-funny-lately/650875/5 "2013-02-20T18:10:59Z")
I read that as “waiter”, and my mind was immediately filled with images of a NSFW restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-water-been-tasting-funny-lately/650875/6 "2013-02-20T18:30:56Z")
Judging by Bones and other crime shows on TV, a dead body in a water tank is an incredibly common occurrence and causes red gooey stuff to flow through the shower head. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-water-been-tasting-funny-lately/650875/7 "2013-02-20T19:15:36Z")
Out at the ranch there’s a dozen old homesteads, each of which had an underground cistern that was lined w/ rock. I usually take a look whenever I come across one. Some are full of debris, some of cow bones and, of course, one seemed positively full of SNAKES! All writhering around. If you fell in they’d be all over you. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-water-been-tasting-funny-lately/650875/8 "2013-02-20T19:15:38Z")
Was she wearing a clown suit? ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-water-been-tasting-funny-lately/650875/9 "2013-02-20T19:21:42Z")
I hope the guests got booked into another hotel. I’ve heard Fawlty Towers is nice – it only has two dead pigeons in the water tank. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-water-been-tasting-funny-lately/650875/10 "2013-02-20T19:28:10Z")
\*Elisa was a little Lam, her skin was white as snow. Because she’s been wet for a week, held by your faucet’s flow.\* ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-water-been-tasting-funny-lately/650875/11 "2013-02-20T20:01:02Z")
Are those tanks easy to get into? Notice that it’s at the Cecil Hotel? hmmmm… ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-water-been-tasting-funny-lately/650875/12 "2013-02-20T20:02:20Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > \*Elisa was a little Lam, > her skin was white as snow. > > Because she’s been wet for a week, > held by your faucet’s flow.\* Winner! ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-water-been-tasting-funny-lately/650875/13 "2013-02-20T22:57:11Z")
A couple updates. Nude? Where did her clothes go? Nothing hazardous? The dates they gave makes it sound like she’d been in there three weeks. > **[Body Found Inside Water Tank Atop Hotel Identified As Missing Canadian...](https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/body-found-inside-water-tank-atop-downtown-la-hotel/)** > > The body of a woman in her twenties was discovered in a water tank on top of a downtown Los Angeles hotel Tuesday. > [@](#): > > KNX 1070′s Claudia Peschiutta reports guests were disturbed to learn Lam’s nude body was found inside of one of four large water tanks. > [@](#): > > The fire department said health officials tested the water and found no hazardous materials. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-your-water-been-tasting-funny-lately/650875/14 "2013-02-21T13:36:54Z")
This happened before in Bangkok, and in the same hotel where David Carradine died, the Swissotel Nai Lert Park Hotel. In the mid-1990s, it was still a Hilton. As I reported elsewhere on the Board, a prostitute went missing on her way to meet a client there. They found the body in a water-storage tank on top of the hotel several days later. Yes, the water that was pumped into the rooms and kitchens. Lovely. It eventually transpired that a security guard had killed her in the carpark. She’d asked him for directions to the client’s room, he made some smart-ass remark to her about being a prostitute, she ripped him a new asshole mouthing off to him, so he killed her. Dumped the body in the water tank and took off for his village in the Northeast without so much as a by your leave. Since he disappeared about the same time the girl was last seen alive, the police put two and two together and found him in his village.