What kind of water do you drink?

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Tap water for coffee or tea unless I have plenty of bottled water. Bottled water when just drinking water, except for emergencies.

 

We have a 208ft deep well with great water. Tap for everything. I have noticed family tends to fill a couple or so water bottles when stopping by so they must agree too.

 

Not technically. Exactly (and repetitively), given that Old One said:

 

@Tal & Splunge
OK, well water :-/
But if it comes out of our tap....then we put it in a bottle...?

 

We used to have well water, and yes -- it was great. And we always called it "tap water": we made a distinction between "city water" and "well water" but called both "tap water" since it came out of the tap, and was thus free (at restaurants, anyway) rather than purchased in a container.

 

Well water use is extremely common in rural areas throughout the US. (As are satellite modems, because the cable needed for high speed internet access isn't out there either. It's satellite or dial up.)

 

I always like to make sure my water contains 2 hydrogens and 1 oxygen. That's the kind of water I drink.



Okay, okay, and more often than not it comes from a bottle, served a few degrees above freezing. I like all my cool beverages to be just above freezing. Ice just makes things taste better, so I often throw that in too, even if it isn't strictly going to make things any colder. My ice is not typically from a bottle, but filtered tap water.

 

The H2O kind

 

Here (all EU?), the quality standards are higher for tap water than for bottled water, so unless you're from an area with poor municipal infrastructure, you're better off with tap on the long run.

Luckily, also PVC food packaging was banned, so there's much less risk of getting hormonal disruptors and similar nasties in your system.

We even had a few cases of serious hospital infections due to water dispensers (the barrels you see in offices) having too low operating hygiene.

I drink ony tap water, sometimes filtered. Well, at least when I have a choice, which I mostly do. It's partly a thing of principle, since so much resources are squandered just to make the bottle, ignoring the rest of the process.

Occasionally also rain water, mountain springs, licking wet rocks, sucking moss and eating snow comes into play, but they're a minority.

 

Here in China everybody gets their drinking water from 18.9liter tanks. People don't really appreciate cold drinks as much as westerners do. The tank dispensers usually have a heating function, so you can enjoy a hot drink in winter or summer. People are really scared of catching a cold too, so many traditional people tend to avoid cold drinks or ice cream. The prevalence of lung infections here is probably extra encouragement.

Food is more important in Chinese culture, especially hot food. A hot drink at least has some value in their eyes. People readily share their food with you, and feel generous for doing so. But if you're not alone, and you want to buy a coke, they'll give you a look like you're too miserly to share a lowly drink with them. It gets annoying at times, so I avoid groups in hot weather.

The tap water has chlorine in it to kill the germs. Much less than a swimming pool - you don't taste it at all. Many Chinese use tapwater for cooking, which is probably not ideal, but it doesn't kill anyone. They avoid drinking it cold, though, which is wise.

I like cold drinks, so I make an effort to get some in my fridge instead of drinking room temperature tank water. Cultural fatigue is enough to double my need for cold drinks, hehe

 

Bottled water for us. Yes we have too much discretionary income. Mrs. Snook also spends a ton of money on "organic" food and meat. Myself, I think it is all a crock of ****, but I learned a long time ago that I can make more money, and peace and quiet is more valuable

 

Apart from anecdotal environmental NGO evidence, my main source of info is a water expert from the Maribor Institute of Health Protection, who has been sampling it for decades and not only at the source.
As for being unlucky with the infrastructure, I already included a disclaimer. I also haven't read much of our legislation on water, but the ruptures you mention do sound like something you could easily report to the environmental inspection.

 

In the US, you CAN be held responsible in many states if you damage underground utilities, including but not limited to, water mains. In Maryland there is a state program called "Miss Utility". You call them a couple of days before you want to start digging in an area, and they come and the spray paint the ground where the underground utilities are. Then you are supposed to hand dig to uncover the utility before proceding with the rest of the construction.

If you don't call and end up damaging the utility during your construction, the state will gladly send in the work crews to repair it, and hand you the bill when they're finished.

 

That's the point, preventing similar incidents in the future. People just complaining into thin air won't change a company's practice, but a monetary fine may. (We have this nice system that not only the company is fined, but also the CEO.)

 

You see, I think that DOES lessen the chance of the water getting contaminated, because companies, just like people, don't like paying fines. It cuts into their profits. As a result, we hardly ever see a water main break because of construction. In every instance in the last 12 years when I've lost water it's because the main broke due to the ground freezing in the winter. In Baltimore, the water main system is well over 100 years old, and many of the pipes that make up the main system are the original stuff they put in. Given that there are literally millions of miles of pipe you'd have to replace if you wanted to upgrade the whole system, the cost of doing so is simply impractical. So they fix the portions that invariably break every year.

Wait a moment... you have water mains running under people's property? All of ours are under the road. You'd have to rip up black top and dig down a few feet to reach the water main. The only water line that runs under my property is the one that connects my house to the main. If that breaks, it will likely flood my house. But all of the water will be coming OUT of the pipe. There won't be conaminants floating into the pipe. And since they have to shut off the water leading from the street to your house in order to fix it, it would seem to me that the only person in danger of getting contaminated water at that point would be me, after they turn the water back on.