We have a pool in our backyard and now, with summer coming soon, it was long overdue to drain the pool and put in new water - supposed to do it every couple of years due to all the chemicals and stuff you throw in. Before draining it, we tested the chemical and boy did it need it…chlorine normal, but the acidity and hardness was off the charts.
So we drained it about 4/5 and then re-filled it.
Tested the water - expecting the chlorine to be really low and the acidity and hardness to be back to normal.
WRONG!
Oddly, the chlorine level was kind of high, and the acidity and hardness was still really high.
OK, so we figured the remaining 1/5 of the water had so much gunk left in it that it didn’t really help much. Damn.
Then my SO said, “Let’s test the tap water.”
Sure, why not.
HOLY CRAP…the tap water chlorine level was HIGHER than we normally keep our pool!! And the acidity and hardness was just as high as after all the chemicals we throw in.
We might as well scoop out a pail of water from the pool this summer and make Kool Aid - that water is just about the same as what comes out of the tap here!
This seems bizarre, as a lab rat (me) I would be trying to find ways of performing some quality control on the test. In the meantime I say “Holy crap! Don’t drink the water in Las Vegas!”
Regarding quality control…cleaned out the vials, used the tap water from the kitchen sink and did the test twice, as we couldn’t believe the results the first time!
Welcome to the 21st Century! A lot of the stuff that comes out of the taps these days is pretty nasty, and municipalities are doing a whole lot of nothing about it. This is one of the reasons I can’t get upset about bottled water. It may not be all that good for the environment, but the tap water you get might not be all that good for you.
When I live out in Vegas we had a water softener in the garage. Since it was the first and only place I have ever seen one, I had always assumed that it was a Las Vegas area issue.
Too bad you need to drink a lot of water out there.
Check with the water agency, and get a copy of their latest Consumer Confidence Report, which they’re required to put out. That will tell you what actual health-hazard contaminants are in the water.
I’m guessing though, that the chlorine is high because they draw from Lake Meade, and that lake level is down way low so their water quality is affected.
You can also have the water agency come out to pull a sample of your water, and measure the chlorine from that. I wouldn’t count on those pool tests being all that very accurate for things like hardness. What were the actual numbers?
