Chief Delphi - Clean Water - Something to Think About

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Re: Clean Water - Something to Think About

There is a great TV show called Penn & Teller -------- (the last word is bad, but the show's on Showtime, so go look it up). Anyway, the show debunks many idea, myths, and other things (i.e., the war on drugs, the environmental movement, PETA, just to name a few) and one of their segments during episode one was on water. They stated the obvious, public drinking water is good, etc, but they went further. They did a sample test in two locations. One test was a tastes test, another was a psychological test.

The first test had two huge bottles of Evan water (labels removed). One bottle was filled with the true stuff, Evan water; the other was filled in a New York City public rest room. After many taste tests, the New York City water came up on top with 70 odd percent of the votes as better tasting.

The second test was funnier. What they did was hire out a fancy restaurant for a day and hired an actor for one night to be a 'water waiter' and would ask the people if they wanted to try out special types of water. They all sounded exotic, from locations like Paris, Everest, etc. The prices also reflected this. Anyway, these people would get a little sample, the guy would talk about it's aroma, people would swirl it, sniff it, taste it, and they had preferences on which was supposed to be better. Note supposed to be better, because in actuality, all those bottles of fancy water were filled outside the restaurant by a garden hose. The best part was seeing the patrons of the restaurant saying how one was smoother than another, etc.

Simply put, most people buy fancy water because it gives them the false sense of security in what they are drinking, they know where it comes from, and that it arrives in snazzy packaging that's germ free, while you average water comes from some pipes in the ground. At one point during the show, they went to some of these bottling points; only to find that most were in Texas, while they advertised how the water is from the natural glacial drippings of Alaska. Heck, they even found more bacteria and germs in bottled water compared to tap!

Re: Clean Water - Something to Think About

Have you ever tried New York water? It tastes amazing! I'd prefer it over Poland Spring, Dasani, you name it...

Re: Clean Water - Something to Think About

Isn't this ironic. I go on Chiefdelphi and see this article about drinking water and on the same day I obtain a magazine on how arsenic in groundwater is slowly killing the people of Bangladesh.

Re: Clean Water - Something to Think About

hey i know in florida our freshwater table to is goign down way fast-- i mean us without good drinking water soon--well that's told by my mom-- hey florida is sinking-lol

yeah but water is a huge concern and all--we need it to live

Re: Clean Water - Something to Think About

i like the water i get out of faucets.... all except for the stuff from South Fork (my school) :eek: that stuff is just disgusting!!!!

Re: Clean Water - Something to Think About

i always drink from Figi water and i think that water is supposed to be clean and stuff. I hate tap water. I dont think that water is very clean.

Re: Clean Water - Something to Think About

If its not from middle Indiana, its good. For some reason, whenever I go to FIRST regionals or stuff, the tap water there always tastes better than the water at home. I don't know why the water here is so bad. Either they are not purifying it enough, or there is an Iron Ore deposit.

Re: Clean Water - Something to Think About

Quote:

Originally Posted by suneel112

I know the water in Indianapolis has smelled and tasted strange for several years. Someone actually from Indy can correct me if I'm wrong, but as I remember, the Eagle Creek Reservoir got drained almost dry during a drought a couple years ago, and that churned up a lot of algae and other stuff in the reservoir. It appears to be getting better, though. This year at IRI, for the first time in several years, I didn't notice the water smelling funny, so I guess it's better now. I'm not sure if that's the same problem you're referring to, but it is the one water problem in Indiana that I know something about :p

Re: Clean Water - Something to Think About

Quote:

Originally Posted by RudimentaryPeni

we get those big water juggs from arrowhead water, so i hope those are safe... i trust them because they say its cleaner up there or something to that effect.

I have seen the Arrowhead tanker trucks filling up at the Arrowhead Springs well. The actual location is in the chaparral-covered foothills just above the city of San Bernardino (southern Calif.). It's near the famous Arrowhead landmark. The elevation is no more than about 2,000 feet--the altitude where all the smog from Los Angeles collects inland. (Southern California mountains top 11,000 feet, in case you're wondering what high in the mountains means). Those pictures of snow-clad mountains shown on water bottles are strictly the invention of marketers. The snow level rarely even gets down to the level of the springs.

So, the water is collected where the air is dirtiest, but the water itself should be well-filtered after trickling underground from the higher, moister elevations. I'm sure they still have to test it for germs, though.

We could turn this thread, which was originally about engineering better water, into a discussion about marketing (which is why so many Americans drink bottled water), or about politics, economics, and climate (which is why so many Africans are happy if they can find even a mudhole to drink from).

Re: Clean Water - Something to Think About

I went down to the Dominican Republic this past summer and seen how the greater majority of our world lives. There is an organization that builds simple but effective water filters that cost about $35 USD and sell them to the people for about $1.50. The filter is basically two 5 gallon buckets with a carbon filter that is in the middle and a tap on the bottom. They add 9 drops of bleach to every 5 gallons and let it sit for 45 minutes so that it kills off all the germs. And then they filter it through the carbon that takes out all the dirt, particles and amebas and so on. I drank from these filters and it turns black water into the best water I have ever had! The best thing about it is that there is no electricity needed! Every 6 months they just replace the carbon filter for about a $1.
Simple but effective.
Drew Hopman

Re: Clean Water - Something to Think About

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drew Hopman

Errr.... Does that filter remove heavy metals. I think the major problem isn't germs or bacteria but the posionous metals that are present in the drinking water.

Re: Clean Water - Something to Think About

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam Y.

Errr.... Does that filter remove heavy metals. I think the major problem isn't germs or bacteria but the posionous metals that are present in the drinking water.

YES! This filter filters out everything. Kinda like a Britta but better. There was a study on how Water-borne related illnesses have been reduced by up to 85% in the city of El Montazo (Dominican Republic) since the project was started. The only reason that it hasnt gone down to 100% is because most of the farmers in the village still drink from the dirty river when at work, so do the childern.

Re: Clean Water - Something to Think About

Another really simple way to purify water is to use the sun by Solar Distillation. Its simple easy, maintenance free and will run as long as there is sunlight.

A better explanation can be found at
http://www.solardome.com/SolarDome84.html