Tell me about your water

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I await all the perverted responses to this with pleasure, of course, but in the meantime, my local water district just sent out its annual 'hey, we're not killing you yet' report. Apparently I have nothing to fear from cryptosporidium or 1,4-Dioxane but they're working on the bromate problem.

How's your regular drinking water? Noticeably grand? Completely foul? Mine is generically blah but I'll drink up as needed -- I mostly drink a combination of sparkling water, juices and some bottled water, though the latter is more for convenience when going to work or the like than anything else.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 21 June 2003 22:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Last week I got a Brita jug and it is the best purchase I have made since the Jerker. Fuck Maryland tap water.

Military barracks water is something to behold, however - that stuff formed these huge pale crystals on this friend of mine's PUR, confirming all our horrible olfactory suspicions

― Millar (Millar), Saturday, 21 June 2003 22:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Luckily for me I have it within my power to order vast amounts of mineral water which I can then merrily consume at work. I don't think I've drunk the tap water at my house as a result other than as a vital component of one of my many daily CUPS OF TEA (It is also within my power to order vast amounts of WINE and SPIRITS about which the less said the better).

― Matt (Matt), Saturday, 21 June 2003 22:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes those Brita jugs are fantastic.

― Matt (Matt), Saturday, 21 June 2003 22:38 (twenty-two years ago)

the only thing missing from the Brita jug is an option to carbonate the water and add lime flavor (have I just given away a billion dollar idea for FREE (yes))

― Millar (Millar), Saturday, 21 June 2003 23:08 (twenty-two years ago)

race you to the patent office

― Matt (Matt), Saturday, 21 June 2003 23:33 (twenty-two years ago)

madison wisconsin water nothing to write home bout
it's crystal geyser 1-liters for driving
3.78-liter jugs at work

yes I'm still talking about water

― Neudonym, Saturday, 21 June 2003 23:38 (twenty-two years ago)

There was a thing in the local news a few weeks ago about our water having a high concentration of cancer causing elements. Boiling yr water doesn't help, but fortunately, it isn't a real threat unless you live here yr entire life...

― gs (kissmyfist), Sunday, 22 June 2003 00:14 (twenty-two years ago)

dunedin water is pretty bad. but there is free spring water at the speights factory down the hill.

― di smith (lucylurex), Sunday, 22 June 2003 00:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Our water tastes like crap here most of the time but it's clean. My favourite excerpt from the City of Winnipeg's 2003 water quality report: Q.: Do we meet the Canadian drinking water quality guidelines? A.: Yes, most of them.

― Bryan (Bryan), Sunday, 22 June 2003 01:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Chicago (Lake Michigan) water is pretty good. I think I just heard that it was the only big-city water in the country to get high marks on a EPA test. I only drink it from the fridge spout--it's colder and there's a filter on it.
We used to have well water when I was a kid--awful. I remember that it seemed like the taste varied from my house and each of my friends. Everybody got used to the specific taste of their pipes or something, causing you to notice just how bad the water tasted when you drank at someone else's place.

― oops (Oops), Sunday, 22 June 2003 01:39 (twenty-two years ago)

The tap-water quality in Melbourne, I'm told (and have experienced to some degree), is among the best in the world. It tastes a bit more mineral-y than bottled water, but there's not a trace of chlorine or anything "heavy" that, to date, marr my experiences with other tap-waters.

― Andrew (enneff), Sunday, 22 June 2003 01:40 (twenty-two years ago)

The rock here is ex-sea floor so the water is very hard; tastes awful and leaves a scaly residue on pots etc, but is clean enough.

The river is full of cow poos, eroded hillsides and fertiliser. This bothers me somewhat.

― isadora (isadora), Sunday, 22 June 2003 01:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Ours is remarkably clean save for a few minerals and a couple of chemicals (not the ones that are added, of course). I like the taste of our water. It's what I drink half the time, really. Anytime I'm out of town and in a region where they don't have "hard water", I find the water to taste a little funny and rely on bottled water instead.

The most disgusting water I've ever consumed has been the water I got from the faucets in Las Vegas. Maybe they add grit and little chunks of rock in the water so that people won't be compelled to hang onto their bottles and just refill them with water so they can save on beverage costs. Hm. Oh, wait, I take that back -- the nastiest water has to be the water coming out of the drinking fountains at the Starplex Amphitheater in Dallas. You talk about grit and chunks of rock -- I felt as if I was consuming a rock quarry. Not only that, the water was lukewarm. It was late and I was thirsty, regrettably.

― Innocent Dreamer (Dee the Lurker), Sunday, 22 June 2003 01:48 (twenty-two years ago)

every time I drink some tap it'll gross me out. then i'll do blind tap vs. bottled taste test and can't tell the difference.

― Aaron A., Sunday, 22 June 2003 02:35 (twenty-two years ago)

after we had a hurricane in 1999, they sent a van around Hoboken telling people to not drink their water w/t boiling it first. then earlier this year, one of the old mains broke and the water was all brown! (apparently, they had pipes a century old still being used.)

otherwise, the water here's fine. and the water in NYC is supposedly pretty good, coming from clean upstate NY reservoirs and shit.

― Tad (llamasfur), Sunday, 22 June 2003 03:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Los Angeles tap water up in Silver Lake was pretty good, but the water in Long Beach is cloudy and oddly dead tasting. A Britta jug was the first thing I bought.

― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Sunday, 22 June 2003 03:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Is this an annual thing? The Sunday newspaper ad inserts come in my Saturday paper. Today these included a report on DC's drinking water -- in the very center of the cover page it says "Your drinking water is safe."

I also have one of those Brita jugs, and as a result when I drink tap water the chlorine taste throws me.

― j.lu (j.lu), Sunday, 22 June 2003 03:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Pasadena just mailed its annual report also. Passes in all areas. I don't mind tap now, although when I drank bottled regularly the tap water did taste somewhat bad. I guess I got tired of buying water and went back, abd got used to it . The worst water I've ever tasted was in Warrensburg Missouri, where it tasted of sulphur. Even showering in it was unpleasant because of the smell.

― nickn (nickn), Sunday, 22 June 2003 05:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Mine is wet, transparent and mostly made of H2O. That's enough info for me.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 22 June 2003 09:49 (twenty-two years ago)

london water has passed through the human body 293457568092783 times by the time it reaches you!!

it's like volvic except w.kidneys intead of pumice!!

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 22 June 2003 09:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I regularly throw things at dinosaurs, so Mark is therefore proven right.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 22 June 2003 10:05 (twenty-two years ago)

My water here (Putney, SW London) is much worse than at my parents, 3 miles away (by worse I mean everything it touches develops a thin film of chalk immediately afterwards). I have stalagmites developing where I drain my glasses. My shower has stopped working properly.

BUT I like the taste, even though I can be 100% certain that at least some of it has been through every person on this bitch. In fact, that's quite a turn on.

― Mark C (Mark C), Sunday, 22 June 2003 10:41 (twenty-two years ago)

the only thing missing from the Brita jug is an option to carbonate the water and add lime flavor (have I just given away a billion dollar idea for FREE (yes))

Soda Streams: dud.

― j0e (j0e), Sunday, 22 June 2003 10:51 (twenty-two years ago)

i wanted a Soda Stream bad when i was a kid...but it was the stuff of true luxury, along with those Vector bikes

― stevem (blueski), Sunday, 22 June 2003 10:55 (twenty-two years ago)

we had one. I seem to remember my dad saying "mmm we don't need to buy proper coke any more" whilst desperately trying not to screw his face up in abject disgust

however, soda streams are slightly classic for the "pssshh... aaaahhh" spaceship noise they made when you opened the plastic door (which would have broken off within a fortnight)

― j0e (j0e), Sunday, 22 June 2003 11:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I live off London hard tap water, so the thought that it might have a definable taste is rather beyond me: it's the default for water. Vittel mineral water is nasty nasty nasty, but Volvic is lovely. Brita water just tastes dull to me, although having the filter is fantastic in terms of not having to descale the kettle half as often. And I insist on using filtered water to cook rice with - hardwater scum floating to the top of a pot of rice is the most disgusting thing ever.

The greatest ever water is from this spring on Hampstead Heath, near Kenwood, which is chalybeate - full of iron - and so stains everything about it with rust. It tastes glorious. St Petersburg water is probably the worst, given the fact that it's reputed to be DETH ON STILTS, but I was a dutiful little tourist and didn't drink any of it. It was wonderful for washing your hair in, though.

In a lot of domestic systems you really don't want to drink water from any tap but the kitchen one: unless you've got a direct system, every other tap in the house will be fed from the storage cistern (in the loft, usually) and will have sat there stagnating for time. And if there's no cover on the cistern, things will probably have fallen in there and drowned. Which means you could be brushing your teeth with dead pigeon water!
</plumber>

― cis (cis), Sunday, 22 June 2003 11:29 (twenty-two years ago)

client: "can you, like, actually take the dead pigeon out of the cistern maybe?"
plumber: *sucks air in through teeth, thinks of very high number*

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 22 June 2003 11:46 (twenty-two years ago)

it's wet

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 22 June 2003 11:54 (twenty-two years ago)

get off the stage

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 22 June 2003 11:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I actually did drink the water when I was in Leningrad, and had no ill effects. That possibly had more to do with the fact that compared to the Russian "champagne" I was drinking, it was like drinking, erm, water. And I was 17 at the time, and therefore invulnerable.

― Mark C (Mark C), Sunday, 22 June 2003 13:09 (twenty-two years ago)

The bromate in the water is to reduce the ragget sex drive.

― Ed (dali), Sunday, 22 June 2003 13:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Russian champagne oh oh ohoh oh oh the hangovers.

― Ed (dali), Sunday, 22 June 2003 13:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Unless you're 17 :)

― Mark C (Mark C), Sunday, 22 June 2003 13:41 (twenty-two years ago)

The bromate in the water is to reduce the raggett sex drive.

So that's why the additives of saltpeter stopped appearing in my food.

(Note subtle spelling correction!)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 22 June 2003 13:43 (twenty-two years ago)

My water (in Cambridge) is ok, but can sometimes be a bit yucky & cloudy. It definitely goes through phases, but is completely drinkable. I think I would like to get one of those brita thingies tho, it def can only help.

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Sunday, 22 June 2003 19:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Florida has notoriously bad tap water. Smelly and just plain foul tasting. Even the Britta pitchers can't filter the smell and taste out, completely. So I've gone the horrible route of only drinking bottled water - and feeling guilty about it the whole time (I drink 4+ liters a day, so it does get expensive).

At home (meaning Northern California) every place I lived had incredible water - either artesian well or even the city water was wonderful. Well, my father's residence has crappy water - somewhat sulfur smelling and stuff - full of minerals to the point where it will add a red shine to your hair - and destroys washing machines within two years. But every other place I lived had marvelous water.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Monday, 23 June 2003 02:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Worry not. I think the plan is to phase out inexpensive municipal drinking water in the US in favor of a private-sector bottled solution, preferably owned by conglomerates with many lobbyists.

Hunter in globalization fear-mongering non-SHOCKAH!

Ned, this should enable them to provide much more accurate dosages for yas.

Littleton water: hurrah for Brita! It's potable without filtration though.

― Hunter (Hunter), Monday, 23 June 2003 03:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Austin water: best I've ever had.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 23 June 2003 03:51 (twenty-two years ago)

ITS THE PIPES THE PIPES THE PIPES. That can be the main reason for water quality or lack thereof.

That said, Seattle water = the bestest.

― donut bitch (donut), Monday, 23 June 2003 05:09 (twenty-two years ago)

The pipes in this old apartment are full of calcium. It clogs up the faucets on a weekly basis, and when you run a bath, you get these chunks of pinkish-white calcium deposits floating in the water. I wonder if that means that if I drink the tap water, I won't need to eat as much spinach.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 23 June 2003 05:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Oxford tap water is really horrible. Far worse than London.

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 23 June 2003 09:36 (twenty-two years ago)

The most minging water in the world is in Derby. The stuff in Doncaster is sublime.

― j0e (j0e), Monday, 23 June 2003 09:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I'll second the dissing of Oxfords very heavy chlorine tap water. No tap water is any good unless you've lety the tap run for quite some time (thems are long pipes after all), but when I do that I thunk of the kidies in Africa. London Tap water though is jam tasty,

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 23 June 2003 09:43 (twenty-two years ago)

the water in dublin is perfectly drinkable. i fill water bottles from the tap, refrigerate them and bring them to work because the mineral water they have in the water fountains at work gives me heartburn.

nicest water = from the taps in reykjavik (it's from geothermal springs!)

i wasn'r brave enough to drink tap water in lebanon, although i'm sure i did it inadvertently at least once.

― rener (rener), Monday, 23 June 2003 10:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Worst tap water evah = Goa, India. You couldn't even brush your teeth with it.

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Monday, 23 June 2003 11:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Our water (NE England) used to be very nice, but of late has become more & more chlorinated, which is horrible. A brita jug is on my shopping list this week, coz it was really horrible - hard to actually drink last week.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Monday, 23 June 2003 11:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Worcester water is horrid. Ocassionally my wife calls me before work to tell me she can't shower because the water is brown. Happens at least once a month. I never drink it, only when Im in dire need (hangover). And ever since high school when we took a field trip to the water treatment plant and there was a condom floating in the water I refuse. So in addition to bromate and chlorine i'd be ingesting spermicide. Sweet. Where's my glass.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Monday, 23 June 2003 12:10 (twenty-two years ago)

oh, and SARAH MILES TO THREAD! hee hee.

― rener (rener), Monday, 23 June 2003 13:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Who is Sarah Miles? And can we eat her?

Supposedly our drinking water is ok, but sometimes it comes out looking muddy, so I prefer my Brita water.

― Sarah McLUsky (coco), Monday, 23 June 2003 13:29 (twenty-two years ago)

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