I only buy the bottled water for the bottle, then use the bottle until it’s worn out. I’ve always been fine with tap water. But there are some places where I can taste the difference between good tap water & bad tap water.

but i’m pretty much used to tap water. I really don’t taste the difference between bottled & tap. but sometimes i can’t resist buying a bottle of water, cuz the design’s so cool.

as for the ice. EW! luckily i’m one of those who don’t like ice in anything.

New York City’s tap water comes from upstate and is actually drawn from the used bathwater and lakewater where they drive motorboats around. So tons of these chemicals are in our tap water. It’s definitely not safe - we have advisories for pregnant and ill people to not drink the tap water sent from the city government every so often. I don’t know if DC has a problem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptosporidia

Go to the bottom to read about the last outbreak which infected 1,800 people…

So what does that leave us with? Tap water full of lead that slowly poisons us and amoebae that requires you to boil water? I will still buy my distilled water in a nice gallon pitcher.

Rainmound…

You’re talking about the Ashokan Reservoir. That’s the 21-mile long lake that feeds the city’s water system. I grew up 10 miles from there and I don’t know where you got your facts, but the water isn’t from sewage or anything like that. It’s actually man-made (the reservoir was built in the early 1900s), and the water is naturally fed (rainwater). There are no channels (rivers, streams, etc.) that feed into the reservoir.

Granted, the rainwater isn’t that much cleaner, but I’m definitely curious where you got your information, because I know that reservoir water isn’t from sewage, bathwater, or lakewater — because I know motorboats are NOT allowed in the reservoir.

And Bobby…

Give credit where credit is due. Sonny Wasilowski first blogged about this SAME thing. Most of the information you got in your blog was from Wasilowski’s site.

All the scientific stuff notwithstanding, there is a definite taste difference.

I gagged the first time I tasted DC tap water.

I live in snobby Montgomery County and I still can’t stand the taste of a drink that has ice cubes made from tap water.

If you can’t taste the difference, yay for you. But I’m sticking to the filter I have on my faucet.

CK: I’m no fan of plagiarism either, but I don’t have the foggiest idea who Sonny Wasilowski is. I found his blog (sonnyjames.blogspot.com) and there was no mention of bottled water there. Maybe you could point me to where he blogged about this same topic?

Rainmond: It’s always easy to find an example of where public health has failed, but the general premise of the linked article and my blog entry is that it’s unnecessary to spend the money, oil, and energy to produce bottled water when tap water, IN MOST CASES, is sufficient.

Allison: I totally support filtering; it gets people to drink more tap water and, hopefully, buy less bottled water. I am also happy to add that I wield the power of Brita® in my home.

Bobby: Brita(R) does not filter lead and certain harmful substances in DC’s tap water. To be absolutely sure it’s clean, distilled water is the best way to go. Distilling water involves evaporating water and filtering the steam through tubes into a reservoir. Granted many of the natural minerals in spring water would be removed, but you would get pure H2O as a result of this method.

What’s really scary is people think that they only need to filter water for drinking and it’s ok to use tap water for cooking. If there’s actually lead in the water, using tap water to boil pasta or rice actually increases the concentation of lead and other harmful substances in the water and it gets absorbed in your food.

If you’re living with HIV, cancer or any of those diseases that lower the body’s immunity, it’s even more critical to boil and filter everything. Distilled water, regardless of brand or source, is the best way to go and much cheaper than bottled water.

http://www.xanga.com/menamesonny

Sonny blogged about it last Monday, only 4 days ago. If you didn’t get the info from Sonny’s site, I apologize, your info is eeringly similar to Sonny’s.

Bobby,

Let me repeat the part about regularly getting warnings for pregnant women and ill people to NOT drink tap water in NYC; these warnings are issued by the New York City Department of Health and come regularly to the social services agency where I work.

Tim is absolutely right about the need to boil and filter water.

I didn’t choose to opine about bottled water because you’re right - most of it is from the tap. You can buy bottled water that has been distilled and filtered - usually in health food stores, for exorbitant prices.

I use Brita.

Okay, should I stick to drinking sugary water (ie. Coca-Cola) because it doesn’t contain lead?

BTW, ever drink tap water in Vermont? Bleech

Joseph: Actually, distilled water is not as expensive as you think. You can usually buy a gallon of distilled water for as much as or cheaper than you pay for only a 20 oz bottle of soda. At Safeway near my home, for example, a gallon of Safeway brand distilled water is only $1. How is that “exorbitant”? Distilled water is pure water regardless if the label has a polar bear on it or not.

Kevin: Soda is much worse than drinking water that contains trace amounts of lead. It is usually loaded with sugar and other unhealthy addictives that nutritionists suspect is the leading cause of obesity, diabetes and a laundry list of other diseases.

Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink. –Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

i still taste the diff. between tap and bottlede. tap is N-A-S-T-Y!! i have a brita filter and it works wonders. ever looked at the filters when u change them??? gur-ross!!
Kevin; you think Vermont tap is bad {it is}, Idaho is way worse!!!

Read this.

This is what you must know.

How unfortunate that millions of dollars are being earned by numerous bottled water companies at our expense. The environmental costs are enormous. The benefits are dubious. I refil a plastic bottle with tap water — the taste is so much better. Spend just $1.00 a day for a year that’s $365 in my pocket! Spend just $2.00 a day for a year that’s over $600 in my pocket! And it’s not just bottled water that eats away at my hard earned money…I try to focus on all my small purchases to make sure I’m not wasting money…deodorant-NO; makeup-VERY LITTLE; cream rinse for my hair-NO; etc etc etc. I just try to think back to what our mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, had available to them and they got along just fine. If they didn’t need it I don’t need it. I’ve cut my living expenses about in half!

The absolute best water a person can get–the gold standard–is steam distilled water with trace minerals put back in.

I won’t even discuss all the crud that is in most tap water in the country. Many people just discuss the taste of it; if it tastes okay, they stick with it; if it tastes horrible, they may move on to bottled water.

To my knowledge, there are no regulations about testing bottled water. So, companies can get a decent taste, slap a label on a bottle, and then make a great deal of money.

When you see gallons of water in the market marked as distilled, that only means they’ve met a state requirement for the number of parts solids per million, perhaps seven or eight parts per million here in Indiana. That water is produced through reverse osmosis. Steam distilled water would be more like three parts solids per million. And, steam distillation is your absolute best shot at eliminating bacteria and other dangerous crud living in the water. Even chlorine doesn’t get it all.

There is one bottled water I’ve seen in the last two years which is quality water. It’s called “Smart Water” by Glaceau. It’s about a dollar a liter at Trader Joe’s. It is “vaporized water” and that is the same as steam distilled. The more economical approach would be to purchase a tabletop water distiller (about $100) and make your own at home.

I use a Brita filter to make cooking water (to cut down costs), but steam distilled with trace minerals is the thing to drink. One you drink it, you feel as though you’ve arrived home.

Water is the essence of life, and we deserve quality water. We should get it from our cities and states, but since they’re not really interested in providing good water, we have to go after it ourselves at our own expense.

When I became a caregiver for my mother, I wanted her to have the best water available, and that’s when I did my homework to locate the best. I’ve never regretted it.

For the most part the United States has one of the best water protection program for tap water use (ie drinking). This is why we have the EPA to help set water quality standards. Your tap water is potable and may even taste better with minerals already added to it naturally. Many bottled water are filtered tap water, believe or not. So, you might as well add a filter to your faucet. Or add a carbon filter to reduce the taste. Either way, it’s not going to kill you 99.9999% of the time. And your tap water is essentially free compared to the price of one bottled water or even a hundred of them.