Velo Dog

I'm starting a new thread on this for purely selfish reasons: Nobody's going to read the 20th post in a string of bottled water comments, and I KNOW THE TRUTH!
For what it's worth, my newspaper has done a number of stories on bottled water, and I've researched it from several angles. I've probably seen a dozen studies on its quality and purity, and NONE has concluded it's safer or more pure than most municipal tap water. Virtually all of it IS tap water from one place or another, filtered at almost no cost, bottled and shipped around the country. It's an environmental disaster from the standpoint of energy used to process it and transport it, and Americans throw away hundreds of millions of plastic bottles a year.
A problem that's just coming to light is the impact on cities where the water is bottled. One recent report said Americans drink 26 billion gallons of bottled water a year, and nearly all of it comes from municipal supplies. That's a huge draw on resources, particularly in the West, where a lot of cities are just barely keeping up with the water demands of their residents.
Several high-end restaurants in San Francisco have recently quit selling bottled water, even though the profit margin is enormous, 500 percent or more, because it's environmentally unsound. And in blind tastings, many cities' water, including San Francisco's, routinely beats the expensive bottled stuff. This is pure marketing, a monument to how stupid the American consumer can be.

MTBLover

Amen. Stick with a Brita (even though the filters have to be discarded... )

dbg

I can't seem to get the message through to others in my family. Wife buys two cases a week just so the kids can have convenient bottles to carry with them to sports practices. I keep saying we only need 1 reusable bottle per kid and just refill them from the tap. Aarrgghhh!

So maybe there is a case for water bottled from the Great Lakes area (second largest fresh water system in the world, and fully 20% of the world's supply) to be distributed to arid areas whose water supply may come under challenge if climates change drastically (Phoenix, LA, etc)

Digital Gee

I'm convinced, and I'm going to get a Brita or something similar. Now to find a 1-3 gallon GLASS container that fits in the fridge and has a tap on the bottom. Hmmmm.....

maddmaxx 

does beer come in glass kegs.

MickE

Our city water here in ST. Louis County tastes pretty good -- better than most cities I've visited -- but it still has a slight chlorine taste. Isn't chlorine an oxidant? I usually drink bottled water and always recycle.

Artkansas 

I had a couple of chances to talk with Richard Heckmann, CEO of U.S. Filter when he was trying to take over the water filtration market and succeeding well before selling out to Vivendi.

He had one comment about expensive bottled water.

"Spell Evian backwards."

stapfam

Have to agree about bottled water being expensive and probably tap water in the first place. In the UK we have small companies supplying water locally. I used to live with good water pumped to the house that is filtered through the Chalk hills. It tasetd good. I now live in a rea where although safe- the water has taints to it. So we filter it.
Just as an example- We freeze Ice Cubes from Tap water in the trays in the Freezer. I had a Tray half used so just topped up the empty compartments from the tap. Day or so later went back and I had coloured water- Coloured brown. On top of that there were little bits in the ice cubes. Some insect or other was there. Since then- We have filtered our water.

Monoborracho

+1...I had the same experience. I'm the guy who will leave a full bottle of water on the bike for days at a time and still drink it.

After my wife was diagnosed with cancer (now thankfully and hopefully gone) , and after surgery, chemo, and radiation, she won't drink anything but bottled water. And I don't say a word because if it helps her peace of mind then I'm all for it.

Beverly

I prefer to drink water from a bottle but I just refill the same one from the tap at work and home. I do carry a few extra water bottles in the car just in case I forget the water bottle for the bike.

SaiKaiTai

Yep, good ol' Brita-filtered Hetch Hetchy water for me, straight from the Yosemite Valley snowmelt.
Well, almost... it does make a stop at the San Andreas fault (Crystal Springs Reservoir) on its way to me...



By the way, if you look at that picture, you'll see the Pulgas Water Temple -where the Hetch Hetch dumps into Crystal Springs- there is an excellent riding patch along this road that -I think- takes a 25 mile loop. Now that it's Spring, it's time to throw my bike on the rack, head down and take that ride

Digital Gee

Who, or what, do they worship at the Pulgas Water Temple?

SaiKaiTai

Fleas. What else?

spry

"Dont drink the water,fish wee in it"
W C Fields

You can get one of those cutie floral glass 1gallon containers( used for solar tea) with a spigot on the bottom at Walphart.Send it to me and I,ll dip it in Lake Erie for you with a small perch added for flavor.

Red Baron

Our local water comes from Kentucky River.
Being in a rural area, we often get 'boil water alert' reports - in the mail no less, or posted in the weekly county paper. I've seen it slightly disclored, and usually can tell when the mail alert is due when I see it has a 'soapy' texture (small bubbles form). Explanation is usually a broken waterline somewhere. I think water in these rural areas is transported in very old iron pipes. Dig them up around old houses and you'll often see tree roots, etc.
I'll stick to bottled water for drinking & recycle the plastic, all other use is local tap.

The Weak Link

Skip the water and drink milkshakes instead.

Terrierman

W. C. Has been misquoted. It's "fish F**K in it."

Nermal

The real problem with western water supplies is that irrigation water is usually so heavily subsidized that the end user finds it economical to irrigate pasture land. This is the worse possible use of a scarce commodity.

I apologize in advance for dragging politics into bf, but this is almost as big an annoyance as a Kentucky blue grass lawn in the middle of the darn desert.

daredevil

Yes water is important, especially for people like us who are active, but this business about carrying water around with you 24/7 is just plain silly. It's seems like a security blanket for some people. I see so many people that have a bottle with them wherever they go.

Digital Gee

What you're seeing is the new water bottle / cell phone combo. It's all coming together.

abqhudson

All municipal water does not taste the same.
If you can't taste the difference - why pay the difference. Some may have valid personal reasons.
If you can taste the difference ----
I really get annoyed by those that assume to be smarter than the rest of us - trying to tell us stupid folks how to live.

Jim

MTBLover

Try this: https://products.howstuffworks.com/br...ice-review.htm

Great for saving space in the fridge, although you need about 15"x15" floor space.

swan652

Many years ago we (at the time) lived about five miles out of town on what was once a cattle farm. Our water came from a huge, brick lined well with a (loose fitting) concrete cap on it and was some of the best tasting water I've ever had. The in-well water pump quit one day so I had to open the cap to change pumps. In a conversation with my wife a few days later I mistakenly mentioned the dead mice that were always floating in the well (I had known about them since we lived there). Holy S--t! I ended up having to drain the well, clean it out, have the water tested, bleach the new water, drain and re-fill it again and seal the cap per the DOA's (and wife's) instructions. We had used that well for nearly two years before "the mouse incident" with no ill effects, but that well was never the same after that and the water never did taste as good as it did before. Steve

BSLeVan

The taste thing has come up several times. I find it somewhat amusing. After having used (via free choice) an energy drink mix in my water bottles on long rides, I don't believe I have any right to complain about how tap water taste.

bones

The town I live in, Burbank CA, hosted major aerospace manufacturing for half a century. When they left, it was found that the ground water contained significant amounts of perchloroethelyne (a solvent and carcinogenic) and lead, to name only two. Lockheed is still spending millions annually to clean up the water by drawing it up through wells, filtering it and returning it to the ground. Burbank gets a large part of it's water from ground wells, so I don't drink straight tap water, I filter it. I don't buy bottled water either, knowing it's only filtered tap water. As far as the bottle goes, I buy Gatorade in the liter(?) bottle and keep refilling it with filtered water until the cap doesn't work any more. I like the shape of the cap for drinking on the bike.
I understand OPEC has been jealous of Coke, etc., for coming up with a "product" that sells for so much more than gasoline but is so much cheaper to produce! Do the math, bottled water is more expensive than gas even at todays prices.