Steve Crooks writes…
Why not tap water? We buy the Costco water for times when we need to grab a portable bottle (otherwise just drinking from the tap) simply because it's the cheapest water I've seen. Probably cheaper to keep the empties and rebottle from the tap, though. But there's a point where laziness wins.
The reason I don't drink tap water: The tap water in this area stinks. I don't just mean it doesn't taste good. I mean it stinks the way rotten cheese stinks. For about five minutes after I shower, I feel like I need a shower. Believe me: I would love it if I could just turn on a faucet here and get a drink of water but it's really, really awful.
I've had folks from the Department of Water and Power out.They tested the water and said it was safe to drink…and that since it was safe, there was nothing more they could do.There's no action they can take simply because it I find it undrinkable…and by the way, the two men who came out (separate visits) both tasted it and agreed with me that it tasted bad. One suggested that some recent underground work on the pipes might have kicked up sediment therein and that the flavor might improve in a few months as that sediment settled down again.That was three years ago and the water still induces automatic spit-takes.
I tried running it through Brita pitchers.They helped a little but not quite enough…and I found I had to change the filters a lot more often than the Brita people say should be necessary. It was kind of like: Take a sip, put in a new filter, take another sip, put in a new filter…
Buying Crystal Geyser water has ultimately proven to be about as expensive, much less hassle and it results in water that actually tastes good, as opposed to the Brita-processed kind which is just drinkable. Since water is all I drink, I don't think it's too self-indulgent to want to like it.
I am amazed that people are not madder about this. Back in the sixties, there were environmentalists (we called them "conservationalists" back then) who warned that if we kept dumping crap into our water and didn't protect it, the day would come when it would be undrinkable.Those folks were written off as kooks and hippies and nutcases…and as it has turned out, they were exactly right. Dasani and Aquafina and a thousand other labels would not be getting our money if the kooks and hippies and nutcases had been wrong. And I'd be able to drink what comes out of my faucets.