Lesson Learned

"That's why bottled water is big business."

Hype, fear, misguided 'experts', effective advertising, and flat out ignorance are why bottled water is big business. Do what you want, but I will state again: please know what the fuck you are talking about.

Topeka, in particular, had a 'red water problem' around 15-20 years agom...rust from iron pipes. I was one of many who worked on that. To my knowledge (and trust me I would know) Topeka does not have an extensive network of galvanized pipe. The brown minerals you see actually come from Kansas Limestone, which is classified as a soft rock. I would be willing to wager that your boil experiment happened in a time of partial drought...and the concentration of lime went up higher than normal...and the guys at the plant did not want to 'over treat' for lime, because that could be actually dangerous...and they 'put up' with the high lime concentrations and the hard water that resulted...because although some people complained about aesthetics, it was definitely safe.

Btw, there are many liquids (juices for example) that must be shaken before drinking. Do you think that will kill you too?

The calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate come from limestone or chalk in the ground and is absolutely naturally occurring. Oddly enough hard water forms scales on the inside of the pipes and it is actually wanted because it prevents galvanized steel from corroding. The corrosion with soft water ruins the pipes faster than pipes will with the scales from the naturally occurring calcium which will eventually cause the pipe to slowly get clogged.

I respect your choice to filter water, but your reasons are flawed and you are doing people a disservice if you use your "evidence" to talk others into doing the same. Science says you are wrong.

Those white and brown (Topeka) substances are particulates picked up along the way in the pipes carrying our water. It is present in every plumbing system in the civilized world and meets a minimum level of "safety". Accepting this "safety" level is a personal preference. That's why bottled water is big business. Think Nestle, CocaCola, Pepsi. Europeans have been drinking bottled water for more than a hundred years. Think Evian. Simply put, more and more people just aren't accepting this level of "safety" as valid.

This calcium does NOT occur naturally. It is a result of "bleeding" from man made galvanized pipes!!!** Which is STILL used in some water mains. Again, acceptance of it's "safety" is a personal choice! In my world, I find it hard to accept how foreign, man made, particulates/contaminates can be entirely "safe". Does that "acceptable level" really mean anything? I can tell you a story from 30+ years ago that would take up another two paragraphs. I'm sure you don't want to hear it! The water in Detroit was initially hailed as "safe" if you'll recall. It took a couple hundred people carrying 2 litre bottles of colored "safe" water to convince somebody it wasn't so "safe" after all. Shit rolled down hill from there.

Ever look inside your toilet tank and see brown crud on the bottom? That's years of accumulated mater the water company is telling us is "safe". Think about that. If you have a gas water heater you might hear a rumble after a couple of years. That rumble is accumulated sediment ("safe" particulates) reacting to heat from the heating element. Don't have that problem with electric 'cause of the position of the heating elements but the sediment is still there.

That's enough, WHEW!!!

**I took a "Maintenance" course very long ago. One of the subjects was plumbing! Covered water plant to faucet. Originally Posted by dumars

Yes, we've all been drinking it for our whole lives but once you SEE what you're drinking it's "OH SHIT!". I've been filtering my water too for 10+ years. Filtering, I discovered, takes out about half of that stuff you don't want in there, depending on the brand and type of filter. For the longest time I thought filtered water was as good as bottled water . . . it ain't as I found out with the same 6th grade science experiment. Originally Posted by dumars

FILtered water is a joke
still has fluride in it, right? *yes it does
I have a RO machine and get RO water for .25/gallon at the local shoppe
tastes better from my glass bottles($20/amazon) and I keep 7 in my garage,, takes a bout 2 weeks to have to empty them

I would be willing to wager that your boil experiment happened in a time of partial drought...and the concentration of lime went up higher than normal... Originally Posted by AlbusMilitis

You lost your bet! I collected the sample from a neighborhood of $¼M - $½M homes about 2 months ago! Was there a drought then? Off of Lincolnshire, if you wanna look it up!! I think the whole neighborhood is about 10 years old. The OP sample was taken from a 40+ year old home on Goddard.

Jesus H. Christ!

Don't matter where it comes from, limestone cave or back yard, it should not be in anybody's drinking water. It is NOT filtered out, it is not rendered "safe" . . . at least to the taste and eye! If you feel warm and fuzzy with some minimum standard and/or certification that's on you! I smoke and there's nothing I can do about my future in that regard but it ain't to late to keep other shit going into my body. Don't care if somebody else deems it "safe". I'm a big boy, I got kids who have grown kids. I make my own decision based on what I know and what I see. And what I see is not what I want passing through mine or my family's body(ies). At least not in the quantities I see. Those samples I posted are from 16 oz of water, 2 CUPS! That's it! Not 2 gallons, TWO CUPS.

Anything else you want to argue about just for the sake of arguing? You seem to be the type that just needs to argue! You'll really cop a bitch on how I shower, it ain't normal either and has nothing to do with rain water.

Dumars, the Jenny McCarthy of tap water. Ignoring scientific facts about water for 10+ years ��

Lincolnshire, huh?

Well, at risk of continuing to argue about water quality with somebody who drinks out of tubs he leaves in the driveway, here I go:

Topeka has three pressure zones, the west one being highest, east one lowest. The plant uses pumps to transmit the water to the towers..there are a few cross connections which allow the lower pressure zones take water from the higher, but never the other way around. And you are correct about one thing: everything in the west pressure zone is fucking new...as in lined ductile iron transmission mains, pvc distribution mains, and hdpe service lines. Not a galvanized pipe (or any pipe subject to corrosion) for miles and miles.

You have a very mistaken notion of what drinking water is.

Btw, it doesn't matter whether or not there where drought on Lincolnshire - that's not where the fucking water comes from...you do know that right? It comes from the river...and if you look at the drought map, the basin is still in a fucking drought:

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Home/S...onitor.aspx?KS

Bigryan nailed it.

Just don't start blaming the contrails.