A Blog devoted to all things SWC, the greatest college athletic conference. Updated weekly with the SWC Game of the Week during football season. Other relevant SWC News will appear from time to time as well.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Tap Water

So, Mrs Bubba and I have always drank tap water. It's fine water, and when we lived in NYC, the NYC water is some of the best tap water. I used to say, "We're civil engineers, our job is to provide clean safe water, of course we are going to drink the tap water.

Now according to this article in the NY Times, we are part of the cognoscenti. Some interesting tidbits from the article that we have sometimes touted to our friends who mocked us.

The public water supply is much more stringently regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency than bottled water is by the Food and Drug Administration. The E.P.A. requires multiple daily tests for bacteria, for example, with the results available to the public; the F.D.A. requires weekly testing, which does not have to be reported to the agency, to the states or to the public.
But I think they do it for other reasons than we did.

“Serving our local water in reusable carafes makes more sense for the environment than manufacturing thousands of single-use glass bottles for someone to use once and throw away,” Incanto explains at its Web site.

But it is always about the bottom line, right?

For almost everyone else the idea is still in the talking stage, in part because there’s a big profit in bottled water, even though some of it comes out of a tap before it goes into the bottle. Restaurants buy it for $1 or $2 and sell it for as much as $8, or even more, giving it the highest markup of any item on the menu. Most restaurants making their own sparkling water are not charging for it.

Geoffrey Zakarian, the chef and an owner of Country in Manhattan, described the ban as “a worthy thing to do.” But he added, “You have to make a profit.”


What I think is funny is how so many people have been "conditioned" to think that tap water is not save to drink. When Mrs. Bubba and I were in Rome they have water fountains all over the city that just spout water. (This is true all over Italy, at least where we went.) Well, we would fill up our water bottles and drink at these water fountains. When we were at the Forum another American came up to us and said, "Is that water safe to drink?" We just said yes and drank it in front of her. I mean, these people invented piped in water. The US is not a 3rd world country, the water is safe.

9 comments:

Jillie Bean (AKA Bubba's Sis) said...

I've always drank water from the tap, too. Heck, when we were little we would drink it from the garden hose! Our water is fine. Bottled water is way over-rated.

angelq said...

The tree-hugger in me doesn't like wasting all those plastic bottles. We recycle as much as possible and our plastic bin is already always overflowing.

We drink tap water, but it's filtered because it's from an aquifer and has too much fluoride. Sometimes, tap water doesn't taste so good (i.e., College Station). And I've seen some ugly things floating in water from water fountains - but that was most likely a maintenance issue.

cjm said...

Not to mention the data on the state of our country's teeth due to not getting the fluoride that's in the tap water when drinking out of a bottle instead. My water comes out of the refrigerator door.

Timmie Smith said...

Yeah, the tap water in College Station certainly isn't tasty, but the only time bottled water comes into the house is when my mom comes to visit. She's spoiled with her sweet tasting Panhandle water and will gag if she tries to drink from the tap here.

angelq said...

A little known fact, you don't have to ingest the fluoride to get the benefits. And the fluoride you get from your toothpaste and/or mouthwash is sufficient. It is actually bad to get too much fluoride. Which is why we filter now.

Sorry to hijack the post, Bubba.

cjm said...

What if people are too poor for toothpaste? Huh? What then? :o) Seriously, there was some research on the reduced amount of fluoride we're collectively getting because of bottled water. I didn't look at the source or anything so can't vouch for the quality of research.

Editor in Chief said...

I figure I pay taxes for the water to be filtered and anything that gets through will make me stronger.

We also have about 6 bottles of bottled water in our fridge at any given time. They are all filled with tap water though.

The College Station water is not the best, but I found if it was cold it was o.k.

In Europe (the two times we've been so we aren't exactly regulars) they won't let you drink tap water, so we drank sparkling water. (it costs the same.) You can't get sparkling out of the tap, but that would be cool.

Katie Lady said...

I was spoiled by sweet Panhandle water, too, and REALLY don't like the CS water. What in the heck do they DO to it there, huh? I don't see how all you Aggies handled it for the many years you live(d) there.

thisisclarke said...

Fluoride is actually a poison. It has also been shown to accumulate in the pineal gland, which can cause a number of hormonal problems. I definitely use tap water, just need to filter it, that's all.