I thinkhe was giving you a hint

I worry a little about that, but bottled water isn't much better. Coke, which sell Dasani water, was just found guilty of bottling their English water out of the Thames. Talk about polluted water!

Maybe those five gallon water bottles are better.

Fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face.

Quoted: That being said... how does one know what IS or ISN'T in the water?  There are differences between bottled water, spring water and distilled water.... which one is free of the most chemicals/runoff/etc??

 You can always boil your water then store it in empty 2-liter coke containers - that's what I do.

You gotta love livin' in Kentucky.....

You live in the last of 6 houses at the end of a narrow road...and you have dogs.  Can't be all that bad.

1) Get yourself over to the Survival forum most Rickey-Tick

2) If you think that $1/bottle stull is somehow more "pure" than tap water, you've not researched the subject enough.

3) Water filters and purifiers are relatively cheap, effective and maintenance-free. There is no reason you should be drinking anything you're unsure of.

4) You can have your water tested for free at your county extension, local water treatment plant, Civil/Environmental Engineering department at a local university or any other myriad locations.

Mandrake, have you wondered why I only drink rainwater and pure grain alcohol?

Quoted: So I've been looking at reports of what's in our drinking water and it has me thinking about switching to bottled or purified water. Reports are saying that our drinking water has residual levels of all the medications and supplements that we take in it.... that means prozac, birth control pills, etc.  In fact, one study is hypothesizing that because women only process 20% of the birth control pills we take that the estrogen that men are ingesting in the drinking water may be lowering their fertility rate.   That being said... how does one know what IS or ISN'T in the water?  There are differences between bottled water, spring water and distilled water.... which one is free of the most chemicals/runoff/etc??   I asked the guy who delivers our water about it and he said, "Well, thank goodness I don't drink water so I don't have to worry about my fertility.  I just have to find a woman to give my fertility to...."   You gotta love livin' in Kentucky.....

Water distillation is the only way to go ... My wife and live in MO and we purchased a 22 gallon distillation unit.  It gets EVERYTHING out.  When we clean the machine, we get CHUNKS of calcium, chemicals, sediment ...  You've never had water so pure it won't even conduct an electric current.  Tasty, too.  It's the way nature purifies water as well.

I might also add that the cost over time is cheap.  I have the distillation unit hooked into my refridgerator so that even the ice we get is pure ... It's crystal clear except for the more dense part at the core.  If you have any additional questions, just ask ...

Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.

--Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

Quoted: Actually I DO understand that some bottled water companies get their water from munipal sources and I HAVE been researching this. But nowhere, so far, have I found any evidence that directs applies to extracting pharmeceuticals.... most are concerned with arsenic, lead, nitrate, etc.   The distillation sounds interesting... if you don't mind, how much did it cost?  A lot of installation involved? BTW, boiling your water kills bacteria.  You'd have to actually capture the steam and condense it back into water to removed impurities.

The cost varies between the differnet sizes of units.  We chose the 22 gallon route  because we plan to have a family.  It ran around 3.5k to 4k but financing is available.  It was also the larges unit.  There's a 12 gallon unit available for like 1.5 to 2k??  Installation is a breeze.  It's harder if you plan to connect it up to an ice maker but if you just want a free standing unit, you can "Y" it off of the washing machine cold water outlet for example with parts readily available from hardware store ... They are cheap, too.  Installation using this method would take maybe 30 min to an hour and just would consist of putting the top unit on the tank, connecting it to water and turning it on.

Give me your email address if you want and I'll give you the name of the company we bought from.

Quoted: I might also add that the cost over time is cheap.  I have the distillation unit hooked into my refridgerator so that even the ice we get is pure ... It's crystal clear except for the more dense part at the core.  If you have any additional questions, just ask ...

How does distilled water compare with reverse osmosis?  (I'm too lazy to do my own research.  )

Thnaks, Dave

Quoted: Quoted: I might also add that the cost over time is cheap.  I have the distillation unit hooked into my refridgerator so that even the ice we get is pure ... It's crystal clear except for the more dense part at the core.  If you have any additional questions, just ask ... How does distilled water compare with reverse osmosis?  (I'm too lazy to do my own research.  ) Thnaks, Dave

Reverse osmosis kicks butt when it comes to taking out inorganic compounds/contaminants but can't remove viruses and bacteria ...  The bacteria and especailly viruses are much too small to be picked up by the filter.  That's the main reason we finally settled on distillation ... It gets rid of everything.

Quoted: Fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face.

You left the 'Mandrake' off the end of that.

Sounds good!  As far as the bacteria goes ---- if it doesn't kill you it can only make you stronger, right?

... I got in a "fight" with the city fathers a few years ago regarding fluoridation in the water without citizens input to the matter. Even discovered a couple of the board members had recently invested big in a new water purification, bottling and distributorship beforehand ! It got kinda ugly but my efforts to stop it were in vain.

... For the most part, I'm of the belief tap water is safe to drink in any one given instance. I just choose not to if possible. Largely because of the foul taste of groundwater around here. Reverse osmosis is an inexpensive way (about 2¢ /gallon) to stay supplied in clean & clear water.

... Essentially it boils down to: Why take the chance with all the carcinogens in the environment. There are measures you can take to reduce your exposure - like drinking fresh water.

... And if you're not keen to RO, there's always Amber Bock!

The enviro-wackos sure f'ckded up, I'm remember the debate about this subject a few years back, The enviros-wackos claimed this was the best thing since sliced bread, and convinced the f'd-up liberal Kali-fornia legislature to forced the petroleum companies to to adopt MTBE as an addictvie to combat air pollution, and then it spread USA-wide. The cure is worst that the disease.
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www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/nyregion/31pollute.html

October 31, 2004

A Gasoline Additive Lingers in New York's Drinking Water
By IAN URBINA

FORT MONTGOMERY, N.Y., Oct. 26 - Twelve years ago, when a new gasoline additive
held the promise of reducing air pollution, New York State made a huge bet that
the technology would work. It supported the use of the additive, M.T.B.E., to be
mixed with gasoline at some of the highest concentrations in the nation, from 12
to 15 percent, while also allowing the additive to be used in parts of the state
where air pollution was less of a problem.

But six years later, when studies began to show that the chemical was a
potential carcinogen, state officials realized that by trying to clean the air,
they may have seriously damaged the water supply. M.T.B.E. had been leaching
into the underground water table from thousands of gas tanks, and now the state
has more than 13,000 spills that must be cleaned up, one of the worst cases of
drinking-water pollution in the nation, experts say.

As a result, far fewer people have been staying at Annie Scott's bed and
breakfast, a two-story Victorian house with a scenic view of the Bear Mountain
Bridge on the Hudson here in Orange County. Even though Sunoco installed a
purifier in her basement and the company conducts regular testing on her well,
Mrs. Scott says the water still smells like turpentine. She refuses to serve it
to her guests, drink it herself or give it to her two teenage children.

"We offer bottled water if guests want to brush their teeth, make coffee, or
take a drink," said Mrs. Scott, who estimated that she had lost $15,000 worth of
business each year since an underground leak in December 1999 at a nearby gas
station contaminated local water with M.T.B.E. "We also warn guests about
showering, since M.T.B.E. is worse when it vaporizes."

Along with 49 other residents in town whose wells were polluted, Mrs. Scott, 47,
filed a lawsuit seeking to force Sunoco, which owned the station, to pay for her
loss of income and property value and to help the town build a pipeline to bring
water from a nearby reservoir.

Fort Montgomery's situation is like that of towns and cities throughout the
state. Last week, a federal court agreed to speed up New York City's $300
million lawsuit against oil refiners for a huge spill in Jamaica, Queens, the
lead case in a group of 115 related lawsuits.

"New York is faced with one of the worst M.T.B.E. problems in the country,''
said Senator Charles Schumer, who has taken up the issue along with other
lawmakers in Washington. "And the state is not even done counting the number of
spills yet."

While New York and other states have banned gasoline with high levels of M.T.B.E.,
experts say that New York's troubles are a harbinger of a nationwide problem.
Roughly half the country draws its water from underground sources like public
and private wells or aquifers.

"People seem to be waiting for some major disaster," said Walter L. T. Hang,
president of Toxics Targeting, a firm that provides environmental data to
environmental consultants and drinking water suppliers. "But the disaster is
already here. It just happens to be occurring underground."

M.T.B.E. contamination has been found in the ground water of at least 28 states,
and with estimates ranging from $30 billion to $100 billion for a national
cleanup, oil companies have argued that they should not be held accountable
since the federal government required the use of oxygenate additives.

Last year, the Bush administration supported a $31 billion national energy bill
that would have protected the oil companies from having to pay for the cleanup.
Republican supporters of the provision said the companies were not responsible
for the decision to use the additive.

"The government mandated the utilization of M.T.B.E.," said Jonathan A. Grella,
a spokesman for Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, whose Texas
district is home to several of the largest M.T.B.E. makers. "Those who produced
it were fulfilling this mandate and therefore they deserve protection."
Opposition to the provision was one of the principal reasons the energy bill
failed.

In New York, at least 20 municipal water providers, including New York City,
have pending lawsuits against oil companies seeking their help in cleaning up M.T.B.E.
pollution. More than 150 such lawsuits are pending nationwide, Mr. Hang said.

When tanks leak or trucks spill, gasoline often seeps into the ground, and since
most of its ingredients, like benzene, toluene and xylene, are insoluble, the
gasoline puddles on top of the water table and evaporates. But M.T.B.E. - methyl
tertiary butyl ether - dissolves quickly into water, which is one of the reasons
it was popular when, in 1992, the federal government ordered oil companies to
add an "oxygenate" to gasoline to make it burn cleaner.

In 1998, having realized the potential damage, New York state officials
introduced some of the strictest drinking water standards and cleanup
requirements in the country. Experts say that cleanup efforts in the state have
been slow, however, because regulators have tended to remove only leaking tanks,
often leaving the spilled chemicals to continue leaking through the ground.

Many water officials say the pollution could have been prevented.

"There are reams of documents indicating that oil companies knew the dangers of
M.T.B.E., but these companies opted to use M.T.B.E. because it was the cheapest,"
said Paul J. Granger, the superintendent of the Plainview water system, which
serves about 35,000 people on Long Island. Mr. Granger's water district is suing
Exxon/Mobil and Shell, whose spills, he said, have polluted his district's
ground water with 2,000 times the allowable M.T.B.E. level.

With 3.3 million residents, Long Island has the largest population in the
country that depends on a single underground aquifer. Plainview's ground water
makes up a section of the larger underground aquifer, but its contamination has
not yet spread.

"We just don't have the money to clean up their mess on our own," Mr. Granger
said. He added that it would cost $390 million to $1 billion, based on New York
State Health Department estimates, to put filters on the 130 wells in Plainview
that have been contaminated.

In 1998, the federal government tried to reduce the risk of gasoline leaks by
requiring that all faulty underground tanks be upgraded or removed. Older tanks
were typically made of a single layer of steel that often corroded and leaked
after about 25 years. Newer tanks are double-walled steel.

Mr. Hang said that the biggest part of the problem in New York had been the
state's approach to cleanups. Rather than removing all the contamination,
regulators often just removed the faulty tank and a limited amount of the
surrounding dirt. As a result, there are more than 6,000 sites where the state,
having conducted partial cleanups, has administratively closed the file on the
site even though pollution in the ground is still seeping toward the ground
water.

A spokeswoman for the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, Maureen
Wren, did not respond to questions about cleanup methods, but she said that the
state was taking ambitious steps to deal with the M.T.B.E. problem. It banned
the additive this year, she said, and is providing incentives to municipalities
and companies for cleanup.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

I don't drink tap water - the stats on how many people get sick from drinking municipal water every year are staggering.


I filter my tap water before drinking it, and I drink bottled spring water (carbonated stuff like Appolinaris).  "Purified water" is the biggest racket and rip-off in the world.  Stuff like Dasani i snothing but tap water that's been run through a rudimentary purifying process, not much different from a cheap britta filter you can buy yourself.

www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=APPL&pid=03234480000&tab=spe#tablink

Only inexpensive distiller I know of.

Adequate for drinking water.  You WILL be surprised at the crud, mostly dissolved solids, probably salts.  Our city sends out a water testing report every year.  A lot of problems may lie in pipes etc.  I think they do a good job generally of delivering pure water.  In CA you can be sure someone, somewhere is thinking up a new initiative or bond issue to GUARANTEE clean drinking water.  It's a sure fire winner, that and CLEAN AIR.  I don't think I've seen one issue turned down yet we still don't have clean enough water to stop the next one.......

Do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk, ice cream? Ice cream, Mandrake? Children's ice cream!...You know when fluoridation began?...1946. 1946, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual, and certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works. I first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love...Yes, a profound sense of fatigue, a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I was able to interpret these feelings correctly. Loss of essence. I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women...women sense my power, and they seek the life essence. I do not avoid women, Mandrake...but I do deny them my essence.

+1 on the distilling.

I have exclusively been drinking Dist. H20 for 12 years now, and no it does not sap minerals from your body as some claim.

If we got all of our minerals from our water then we would be chewing our water.

Distillation mimicks nature too, eavaporation to rain.

Check out Genesis distillers, that is what I use.

Doc

Quoted: Do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk, ice cream? Ice cream, Mandrake? Children's ice cream!...You know when fluoridation began?...1946. 1946, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual, and certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works. I first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love...Yes, a profound sense of fatigue, a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I was able to interpret these feelings correctly. Loss of essence. I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women...women sense my power, and they seek the life essence. I do not avoid women, Mandrake...but I do deny them my essence.

Not a bit of it, Jack!