The tap water in the Netherlands is among the best in the world if I'm not mistaken. The regulations on tap water are much stricter then those for bottled water, therefore buying bottled water here is not just a waste of money, its actually less healthy.

Besides that the tap water here is cleaned very thoroughly, there are also very strict guidelines for the minimum and maximum amount of nutrients that should be in the water.

 

http://arstechnica.com/science/2014...tion-incident-shows-tenuous-grasp-of-science/

Is this real?

 

Is this real?

I'm seeing this story on multiple news outlets so I guess it's true. That is really sad.

 

http://arstechnica.com/science/2014...tion-incident-shows-tenuous-grasp-of-science/



Dead animals are OK but a little pee is not?

That is pure insanity.....

"In an interview with Vocativ, the teenager in question, Dallas Swonger, denied urinating in the reservoir at all, stating he actually hit a wall instead. "I leaned up against the wall and pissed on it," Swonger said.


Like that is going to hurt anything in an open reservoir.

 

I'm wondering if this guy has thought about the tons of bird poop floating/sinking in there.

 

I'm actually much more disgusted by the dead birds in there... what about all the diseases they might be carrying?

This article has to be bullshit, why in the world would they have an open reservoir anyway.

 

Or rather, would you drink this ?

 

Unless you have some infections in the urinary tract. Urine is quite sterile. This is a picture of the main drinking water source for my city. I guess all the fish and water birds do have courtesy of not do anything "wrong" in the water.

 

...why in the world would they have an open reservoir anyway.

I suppose for the same reason that there are no covers on lakes, rivers, ponds, and oceans.

 

That is the norm for everywhere as far as I know. Reservoirs get water from rain run off, which is to say, they are lakes.

 

I'm actually much more disgusted by the dead birds in there... what about all the diseases they might be carrying?

This article has to be bullshit, why in the world would they have an open reservoir anyway.

What's the alternative?

Let's say that you wanted to enclose enough water for a population of a million people to get by on for thirty days. Taking everything from personal use to outdoor watering to commercial/industrial use, a city consumes about 200 gallons of water per person per day. So a thirty day supply would be 6 billion gallons, which is about 800 million cubic feet or about 2500 acre-feet. Now keep in mind that most cities do not have even supply rate or consumption rate. For instance, most of Denver's water has to be collected during the spring runoff but the summer months are the heaviest demand. Denver's annual water usage is about 250,000 acre-feet. But to ensure adequate supply, even with significant restrictions, during successive drought years the total storage capacity of Denver's system is nearly 700,000 acre-feet. Are you really suggesting that they should enclose and cover all of that?

The overwhelming majority of drinking water reservoirs are open. The Denver Water district serves right about a million residents and owns fifteen reservoirs, the largest of them being Dillon Reservoir which holds about 40% of Denver's water at any given time. Oddly, Dillon is on the west side of the Continental Divide while Denver is on the east side. Even more odd, the water pipeline (all gravity fed) crosses the Divide three times on its way to Denver.

While most of Denver's drinking water reservoirs allow fishing and boating activities, none of main ones allow "water contact activities" such as swimming or water skiing. They used to. I don't know if that is because of federal regs or just something that has become "best practices" in the industry. Having said that, I drive by one of them on a regular basis (the smallest of them) and see water skiers out on it all the time.

 

Even in the remotest locations I have hiked in to, I have seen dead animals in most every waterway. Winter killed or old age cervines generally head for a watercourse to expire...something I've never really understood. So with this in mind, I am no friend of surface water anywhere. Stuff that comes boiling out of the ground by artesian forces invites a drink where found and rain water pools under a rock cleft are probably safe to drink too. But anything else needs filtering or boiling just to be on the safe and narrow.

Cheers, DPW [Everyone's knowledge is in-complete...EA]

 

Call me lucky, but I used to backpack in the New Hampshire mountains, and drank from clear, fast running, streams with a decomposed granite bed and no sediment all the time.

In reference to Rifaa's post, I have both tap water and well water (at my home and vacation house respectively). The home tap water is fine. The well water can develop a sulfur taste, but our local county extension office said it was due to iron bacteria, which is not harmful. However, a treatment of the well once a year with bleach keeps that under control and the water is clear and tastes good.

 

My wife insists on buying bottled water for home use so every week she would buy about 20 gallons of it in refillable 4, 5 and 6 gallon jugs.

About a month ago she wanted me to start filling them when I was in town so I did. I fill them off the hydrant in the bus barn at the school.

Hey it saves me about $8 a week and so far she has not been able to tell the difference.

Now I am half tempted to buy and activated charcoal filter and try filling them off the hydrant out in the shop next and see if she can tell the difference.

 

My wife insists on buying bottled water for home use so every week she would buy about 20 gallons of it in refillable 4, 5 and 6 gallon jugs.

About a month ago she wanted me to start filling them when I was in town so I did. I fill them off the hydrant in the bus barn at the school.

Hey it saves me about $8 a week and so far she has not been able to tell the difference.

Now I am half tempted to buy and activated charcoal filter and try filling them off the hydrant out in the shop next and see if she can tell the difference.

Show this video to your wife http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPAjUvvnIc

 

Or rather, would you drink this ?

I have read in some conspiracy magazines ( only at my dentist or doctor waiting room of course) That this coloration is caused by some top secret CIA project. Which test adding LSD to the drinking water for a whole population. This could explain much. But then again I could be wrong

 

My wife insists on buying bottled water for home use so every week she would buy about 20 gallons of it in refillable 4, 5 and 6 gallon jugs.

About a month ago she wanted me to start filling them when I was in town so I did. I fill them off the hydrant in the bus barn at the school.

Hey it saves me about $8 a week and so far she has not been able to tell the difference.

Now I am half tempted to buy and activated charcoal filter and try filling them off the hydrant out in the shop next and see if she can tell the difference.

I remember in the very early days of the bottled water craze several companies where doing nothing except selling bottles of their local municipal tap water -- no filtering no nothing. They just carefully chose their words, saying things like, "Our water starts out as pure rain." Okay, but they don't tell you that between starting as rain and ending up in your bottle that it went through some city's water treatment plant.

 

Okay, but they don't tell you that between starting as rain and ending up in your bottle that it went through some city's water treatment plant.

Most of our local water either comes from wells in the same aquifer as mine at home or gets pulled out of the local river and filtered.

Apparently if it gets put in a bottle and you have to pay for it it's better.

 

Most of our local water either comes from wells in the same aquifer as mine at home or gets pulled out of the local river and filtered.

Apparently if it gets put in a bottle and you have to pay for it it's better.

Well if nothing else it is a darn good business concept. Take all the expensive ingredients out of soda pop until you only have water. Then sell it for the same price or higher as soda pop. The only extra expense they have is that they probably have run the water through an extra charcoal filter before filling the bottle.

 

Hey, the bottle is worth something, right?