Been drinking tap water all my life, 58 years of it, the last 15 in Tucson. It has no objectionable smell or taste. The only time I don’t drink it out of the tap is in the summer, as it comes out of the faucet somewhat warm, but my refrigerator has an ice water dispenser, so I use that for drinking water. Otherwise, no concerns about drinking tap water.
Well, the whole “Drink 8 glasses of water a day to stay healthy” thing has been debunked by medical researchers at least a dozen times since I first started seeing it in the late 1970’s. On the other hand, Channel 10 news in San Diego did a series of reports on the city’s water and found a lot of it had some nasty cultures and metals and other chemicals in it. They also found (like you have) that the bottled water industry is a rip-off. For example, Arrowhead Water does come from Lake Arrowhead which is on a mountain, but that mountain is in the middle of Los Angeles’ industrial sectors and the bottler uses no filters.
And I cringe every time I see locals bringing a huge empty bottle to a Glacier Pure vending machine in front of the grocery stores. It’s cheaper than bottled water from inside the stores (and uses fewer plastic bottles) but the machine is just a chiller; it has no filter and it’s connected directly to the garden hose spigot on the wall. Unfortunately, my Spanish isn’t good enough to explain the matter to most of the people I see dropping coins in those stupid machines. If you’re worried about tap water, save your pennies and buy something like a PurFlo filter for your sink!
–G!
Thanks for letting me borrow that; here’s your soapbox back…
No, the EPA was directly under Dubya when the testing took place. And I don’t think the Administrator tested that water him or herself, but I work at a government agency and am under no illusions about the rank-and-file’s immunity to pressure from above.
Really, it’s little trouble to pack in my own water. It tastes better and does not periodically smell swampy. But I only do it casually; I am not a good example of paranoia to roll one’s eyes at.
Where I used to live, the tap water was awful. The aquifer the water came from apparently acted as a natural ion-exchange system (think whole-house water softener, but on a larger scale. Whole-City.). There was essentially no calcium (<2ppm), but the sodium was way goo high (>200ppm). As I brew my own beer, from whole grain, the water was so bad that the mashing reactions (which turns the starches in the malt into sugars) were very inefficient. I ended up getting a reverse osmosis system and add the necessary salts (calcium, magnesium, sulfates, carbonates, etc…) needed for mashing. This had the side effect that I could tailor my water for the style of beer (harder water for pale ales and bitters, a bit more magnesium and sulfates for porters and stouts). Of course, I had to tailor the water, since straight RO water doesn’t mash any better than the tap water did.
Of course, the RO water replaced drinking water, was used for cooking, and coffee.
With nearly microscopic additions of a few salts, it would be nearly ideal for pilsners and other light beers.
Well, I didn’t start brewing my own beer because I liked pilsners and other light beers. Even then, though, mashing is a big problem without any calcium in the water. Besides, I have a notion that all that sodium messes things up. I didn’t put a lot of effort in researching the issue when I found some information from a brewer that was a “water expert” who referred to the water supply I was using was “the absolute worst to try to make beer from”. When I found that, I bought the RO system.
This exchange reminds me of a scene from a Barney Miller television episode in which the roof is leaking and the storm is threatening to make the ceiling collapse. Sergeant Yemana is collecting drips to make coffee.
Barney: “You’re gonna use that water?!”
Yemana: “It’s rain water; the best kind there is. Some people wash their hair in it.”
Barney: “It’s just come through the ceiling–that moldy, termite-infested ceiling!”
Yemana [nodding]: “That filters out the impurities!”
–G!
What third-world/18th-century country is your house in? No one has lead pipes in any developed country. If you do, your house should be condemned, and someone is probably committing a crime by leaving that pipe in place.
I’m guessing what you’ve really got is an iron pipe. It can add something to your water, but nothing so dangerous as lead.
I’m guessing it is lead, if wolfman says it is, as he probably knows, since it’s his house.
Lead pipes were used for US plumbing up until less than 100 years ago. If his house is old enough, it is quite possible the feed pipe from the city is lead. I believe modern building codes allow lead pipes in existing residences, but if renovated, the lead pipe must be replaced. My sister bought a house that was early 20th century construction and had a water leak. They had to replace the lead pipe from the city meter to the house.
Yep my whole neighborhood is lead pipes in. People obviously replace it when they go bad, but the whole reason they are there in the first place, is that they don’t go break. They flex with the natural ground movement, or tree roots moving around them.
15 thousand to get it dug up, so I’ll just use a filter.
Lead solder was in regular use even a few decades ago. It can contribute enough lead to worry about.
Unless your house is brand-new (and maybe even then), if you have children, it’s probably worthwhile getting a lead test done on the water – again, this is because there could be lead inside your house. The water coming in has already been well tested. But there’s no point (from a lead perspective) in doing anything (filtering, anything else) UNTIL you get a positive result from a test in your house.
If you’re worried, you might be able to call your water company and have them test your tap water for lead or whatever minerals you’re worried about, possibly for free. We live in an old house in Pittsburgh, and we did this last summer. They had us not run any water for 8 hours and then collect some in a collection kit, then send it back to them. Our water tested negative for lead. Your water company might do this, too. This is supposed to be more reliable than home test kits. Amazon has those, and they’re not crazy expensive (but they’re not free, either).
I wouldn’t switch to bottled water or get an expensive or inconvenient filtering system on suspicion. If you don’t like how your tap water tastes, fine. If it’s not working out for something you commonly use it to do (hard water causing problems, home brewing not working, etc), sure. If you have an actual test result saying there are elevated levels of something bad in it, of course. But don’t get a water filtration system or switch to bottled water just because you think there might be something bad in your water.
raises hand My grandmother’s house has some lead pipes left (Barcelona). Officially built in 1936, we have reason to suspect it’s actually somewhat older. Part of the pipes got replaced with copper in 1967 and again in 2010; the lead pipe that’s left goes to the buddle and the washing machine.
The downstairs neighbors went all-PVC in 2007.
And I just learned buddle!