Bottled water....

[warspite]

Well people for once I agree with David Suzuki....
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2007/02/01/suzuki-water.html
Although bottled water is useful in many situations, i.e. when the regular water supply is compromised, when there is no fresh water available...etc. Does anyone else think its crazy when people shell out $1.75 for a bottle of water when there's a fountain 2 feet away?

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Yup, people will pay more per litre for some company to run your tap water through a Brita filter than they will for something that must be pumped from the ground, refined, shipped somehow to your location, stored underground in large tanks and then ran through a measuring device before it arrives in your cars gas tank......

 

[FormerHorseGuard]

there was a thing in readers digest a few years a go about this subject and they broke it down gas verus things we drink and snapple juice products were the highest priced item per gallon, i think around 22 dollars or more.......
and yes we will buy anything if it looks better

some bottled water is worse for you then tap water if you believe the test results

 

[Shamrock]

Not to mention the water invested in cleaning the bottles, etc.  I think these companies operate at a 3:1 ratio of production, that's three litres of water to produce 1 litre of consumable product.

 

[9nr Domestic]

Over a year ago my water supply was contaminated with diesel fuel, I just can't bring myself to drink tap water anymore. When it first happened I used bottled water to do all my cooking and cleaning of all things food related. One day I will start drinking tap water again, just not right now.

 

[Burrows]

Well people for once I agree with David Suzuki....
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2007/02/01/suzuki-water.html
Although bottled water is useful in many situations, i.e. when the regular water supply is compromised, when there is no fresh water available...etc. Does anyone else think its crazy when people shell out $1.75 for a bottle of water when there's a fountain 2 feet away?

I'll take the bottled water - especially in public areas.  You don't know whos been at the fountain, and which bum pee'd in it the night before.

 

[Kat Stevens]

I will never drink tap water.  I'm in the water purification industry, and let me tell you, the Canadian Drinking Water Standard is not very stringent.  We take already treated municipal water, de-chlorinate it (stuff causes cancer),  soften it ( calcium causes kidney stones, and magnesium is, well, magnesium),  Put through an RO membrane (or 2, or 3, or 6), then store it in a sterile tank.  From that tank it is hit with an activated carbon block filter (tastes, odours and colour), a 1 micron absolute particulate filter, and finally a high intensity UV (kills critters).  All reject water is returned to the sanitary drain system to be recycled back through the whole cycle.  We add nothing to the water, other than ozone if required.

 

[Sig_Des]

Over a year ago my water supply was contaminated with diesel fuel, I just can't bring myself to drink tap water anymore. When it first happened I used bottled water to do all my cooking and cleaning of all things food related. One day I will start drinking tap water again, just not right now.

Haha! I remember that...

Dude in the shower "Man, were you fueling trucks or something?" "No" "Well why doesn't smell like diesel in here?"

 

[Mike Baker]

I like the bottles because it is easy to carry, but my tap water is better then that of which is in bottles  ;D

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I live in N. Vancouver and have tap water most of the world dreams about, but of course that's not good enough for many here  :

Mind you we do boil everything given to our daughter, which lessens the ever so slight risk a bit more and makes my wife happy (worth the effort alone)

I use bottled water for car rides, emergency supplies, camping and for the kid's formula when we are out on the road.

Of course my daughter is a water glutten and happily drinks rainwater with dead bugs in it every chance she gets, so I expect her immune system to do well, I just don't tell the wife. 

 

[AdrianMatte]

Well, IMO it's not whats in the bottle that I pay for, it's the bottle. Yes, I usually buy cheaper bottles and fill my own water in them. But they do come in handy if you need to wash something off and your not near any other water source, or if your running on a path and need water not only now, but for later. The bottle is good to have if you know you'll need the water later, in any case. But I dont personally care how pure the water is, heck, i'll drink river water if I'm thirsty.

 

[Kat Stevens]

Yeah, don't let giardia, crypto, E Coli,  or fecal coliforms stop you gulping down a big ol yapfull of Lake Ontario.  While we're on the topic of tap water, I've got an RO unit in my house, and I've never had a boil water order imposed on my house due to spring turbidity levels being through the ceiling, ever. If municipal treatment is adequate, why did the North Island have a boil order in effect most of Nov and Dec? 

PS can anyone guess how boil orders are arrived at? anyone?.....anyone?

Okay, I'll tell you..... PEOPLE GET SICK FROM DRINKING IT, THEN HOSPITALS REPORT IT TO THE MUNICIPALITY, that"s how.

 

[AdrianMatte]

Oh and about the river water -  :Im not sure i'd go that far , maybe I was exaggurating just a bit  ;D

But the point I was getting across was that I'm picky wheather it's "pure spring water" or not. Water is water too me, as long as it's not contaminated  ^-^

 

[JBP]

Well Kat, from what you explained of the purification systems in Canada, it seems pretty clean to me! The only real hazard I think in drinking water is the pipes it's going through, say, if your in a really old building or house (like me) and if you bend down and take a whiff of the drain you can smell nastiness, then I won't drink from it. It's not the water I don't trust, it's the ancient moldy plumbing!!!

But I've drank tap water all my life and I live in Niagara, and I'm fine... Well, some people would disagree with you there but you get the idea!

But yes, again, do not ever, under any circumstances drink from lake Ontario... Or Erie really, Erie is a lot better to swim in and fish and all that, but still...

On another water issue note, I find it funny that in my municipality, the Ontario government certified that a lake near my home is clean enough to drink, but to not stir up mud, or silt from the bottom of the lake or you might contaminate it with the sedimnent and PCP's still in therein. They also mention not to drink from it when it's really windy... But yes, apparently go ahead and drink from it!  :

 

[muskrat89]

Kat, from what you explained of the purification systems in Canada

I believe that Kat was describing his company's process - not the process employed by most municipalities...

 

[beach_bum]

At home I have a Brita in the fridge.  Not so much because I won't drink tapwater, sometimes I do drink the tapwater, but I just like taste from the Brita.  When we go out I fill a bottle from home and bring water with us.  IF I forget, yes I do buy a bottle of water.  Again, not because I don't trust the tap water, but because I don't like public water fountains.  That goes back to the whole bum peeing in them etc.  Yuck!  ;D

We did have to boil our water her in December for a while.  Thankfully that doesn't happen often though.

 

[JesseWZ]

We have well water and a water softener. Seems to do the trick. I'm rarely sick. Tastes real fine too.

 

[Kat Stevens]

I believe that Kat was describing his company's process - not the process employed by most municipalities...

Exactly so, sorry for the confusion.

Joe-  the reason the drains smell usually is because the water in the trap has evaporated.  Pour some water into it, especially basement drains because they don't get much use.

In my house I have an iron filter and softener for the whole house, and an RO for drinking water.  I wouldn't think of drinking the stuff out of my taps, and every time I try to drink city tap water, the smell of the chlorine drives me back.

 

[Devlin]

I live in Kitchener and we have a water softener....we just moved here a year ago and I had never seen them before. We just keep throwing the salt in it and you can tell pretty quick when the salt needs to be topped up. You'll start to itch after getting out of the shower. The thing I wonder about is how long do the actual softeners last? As I understand it at a very very basic level the softener and the filters within it do all the work and take the hardness out of the water.

Previously I had lived in North Bay and our town water was out of fairly deep and cold lake (Trout Lake) I also had the luxury of hitting a natural spring every time I went up to hunt camp north of Temagami hang a right just past the railroad tracks on HWY 11 north of Temagami and follow the road down past where the pipeline crosses it and there is a little hut with a natural spring or underground lake of some sort feeding it.

 

[Kat Stevens]

As long as the control valve assembly and timer were set up properly, you should get up to 10 years before the softener needs re bedding.  There are no filters inside the tank, it is a loose flowing media that relies on an ion exchange system.  You can prolong your systems life, and also make the granola crunchers happier, if you use potassium chloride instead of salt in your brine tank.