Support NeoGAF

[Stinkles]

Not sure who drinks straight from the tap anymore

Almost everyone drinking bottled water is drinking "tap" water from a municipal source.

 

[numble]

Almost everyone drinking bottled water is drinking "tap" water from a municipal source.

I predict this informative post from a knowledgeable source will go largely ignored and/or contested by anecdotal arguments.

.

 

[xelios]

no no, this is a misconception to some degree. I work in a bottled water plant and while the water we use STARTS as tap water, by the time it gets into the bottle it's way more filtered. A better representation would be if you had a brita in your house and then boiled what came through the brita then put it through the brita a second time before you drank it.

Basically my work takes city water , runs it through a boatload of water softening salts , it's then filtered to take the salt away as well and run through a reverse osmosis machine that leaches out whatever minerals it can. Finally at the end of the process the "clean water" is stored in a tank which is then kept microbe free with ozone. The ozone basically prevents the growth of any germs but doesn't have as much flavour as chlorination does... at least as long as the water sits for a period of at least 24 hours. By then the ozone in the bottle has dissipated.

Tap water has 30-100 parts per million of dissolved minerals and chlorine as well as fluoride. The process that creates my works bottled water brings that down to between 5 and 10 parts per million. If you then tested the water you can find minute traces of fluoride in it still proving it WAS tap water.

Some places actually use full unfiltered spring water but it's far more expensive for an arguable difference in taste. The spring water we get at my work doesn't taste that great , it has a huge mineral count but it's never in contact with city water so there's 0 chlorination or fluoridation. The only thing done to it is the ozone that gets added.

To find out what it is you're actually drinking look at the total dissolved count on the side of the bottle, if it's above 200 then chances are it's actually spring water, if it's anything less then 10 it's highly purifed tap water. Also note that the lower count will likely say there's a trace amount of sodium leftover from the water softener.

......

All that said though I'm aware of the idiocy involved in my line of work. It only exists because people buy it and honestly I don't notice a huge difference. As long as water is cold and I'm thirsty I can drink it. That image linked to above , I'm not sure how much it applies to canada , we seem to have stricter health standards so who knows. With any production facility though there are certainly plenty of ways for things to get contaminated no matter how strict the standards are. This applies to any mass produced product though, alcohol, pop, puddings , hell even a chocolate bar.

Informative post quoted for new page.

Do you know anything about with which brands the plastic bottles leech chemicals into the water? I've read reports of it a long time ago but am having a hard time tracking them down.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

i find it amazing that people pay almost as much for bottled water as they do for petrol, must be one hell of a money spinner.

 

[Wickerman]

Do you read the side of the Aquafina bottle? I know some brands just bottle what comes out of the tap, but Aquafina doesn't.

I never buy Aquafina so I wouldn't know. I do remember this story:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/27/news/companies/pepsi_coke/[/QUOTE]

 

[numble]

I never buy Aquafina so I wouldn't know. I do remember this story:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/27/news/companies/pepsi_coke/

Yeah, but we're talking about drinking straight from the tap, with people saying "Brita it first" or "filter it first." Saying or implying that Aquafina is the same as drinking water straight from the tap is disingenuous.

 

[Stinkles]

Saying or implying that Aquafina is the same as drinking water straight from the tap is disingenuous.

So is implying that the extra processing has any benefits. I think calling it out as tap water is absolutely fair. Especially given the irony that once it goes into PepsiCo's factory, it is actually subject to lighter regulations than it was at the municipal source.

 

[NIGHT-]

http://www.ewg.org/tap-water/whatsinyourwater/AR/Conway-Water-System/0000189/


seems like I need to get a filter

 

[Raxus]

Sweet #22

 

[The Abominable Snowman]

Richmond @ #11 means this list fails. If this nasty water is good enough to be #11 I feel bad for every city beneath it.

 

[numble]

So is implying that the extra processing has any benefits. I think calling it out as tap water is absolutely fair. Especially given the irony that once it goes into PepsiCo's factory, it is actually subject to lighter regulations than it was at the municipal source.

Well I've done particulate matter tests comparing Dasani, pond water, distilled water, tap water, and tap run through Brita (but didn't test Aquafina) in my chemistry course in college, and Dasani was the next cleanest next to distilled H2O in the tests. Of course the test will vary from whatever tap source, but at least in Western Massachusetts, Dasani is cleaner than most options. Of course its still probably negligible in terms of health, but basically saying "you're drinking the same thing! It's just tap water!" is disingenuous. Especially in a thread where we're saying Brita filtered water is not tap water.

 

[Gallbaro]

Fun fact, NYC tap water, despite being the largest provider of water in the country is not filtered, they have an EPA waiver for that.

As a condition of that, NYC is the largest land owner outside of NYC in NYS, in order to protect its reservoirs. Also the longest tunnel in the world is NYC tunnel #2 for water.


NYC tunnel #3 has been under construction for 50+ years.

 

[ch0mp]

Uh... tap water filters? Congratulations to the guy raking in the cash, I guess.

Or is the tap water really that bad over in the US?

You mean apart from all the fluoride they dump into it?

 

[KHarvey16]

You mean apart from all the fluoride they dump into it?

Fluoridation isn't bad.

And woohoo, Boston #5!

 

[ElPolloPeligro]

I rather like my arsenic water, thank you. http://www.ewg.org/tap-water/whatsinyourwater/CA/Victor-Valley-Water-District/3610052/

 

[anovice]

Providence, RI.

Straight out and it's delicious!

 

[Blackace]

Seattle 25! Nector of the gods!

 

[Amakusa]

I work for a water company that services some of those citys listed..... but yet the state I'm in doesn't have my employers water service :b

Call center FTW

 

[ch0mp]

Fluoridation isn't bad.

And woohoo, Boston #5!

sure.

 

[Amakusa]

100. Pensacola, FL

..... : (

 

[evilromero]

I only drink water from tap. OKC FTW.

 

[Piano]

I completely fail to understand why anyone drinks bottled water. Why would you voluntarily pay 1000x more for something that's available to you for fractions of a cent?

 

[Sickboy007]

I only drink Brawndo, leave the water for the toilets.
Plus it's got electolytes.

 

[Tobor]

Richmond @ #11 means this list fails. If this nasty water is good enough to be #11 I feel bad for every city beneath it.

Our water is great. Put a filter on the tap.