i have purchased a berkey water purifier, it does wonderfully,
heres a pdf brochure

heres the berky web site

they also come in stainless steel:)

The environemental problem of manufacturing and then being stuck with so many used plastic bottles is huge and should be obvious, even if the bottles get recycled. And transporting H2O around the globe in diesel vehicles to substitute for local H2O that is identical is just crazy. Another sign of a very sick society.

The health issue has been around too. If nothing else, how long does some bottled water sit still on a shelf or pallet? What really protects it from bacteria? It would have to be sterile not to grow bacteria, wouldn't it? Yet how could it be sterile?

Why not just put a carbon filter on your tap to take out the chlorine? That said, I have to admit that most bottled water tastes better than filtered tap water. I have no idea why, and I've done A-B tests in the same container. Is it the select minerals added "for taste"? If so, why doesn't someone just market the dry minerals that you could mix in regular filtered water with a teaspoon?

P.S. We use a KDF filter purchased from this guy.

Purchasing bottled water when out and about ensures consistency.

I drink a lot of water, more than most. At home I drink filtered tap water. Depending on where I travel, I will fill a water bottle to take with me. When out and need more water I buy bottled water.

Water from public utilities is not consistent even within the same utility. It can be a rude awakening to get a cup of water from the tap to find out it is disgusting.

Consider this statement in the SFGate article, "In many cases, the quality coming out of the tap is equal to or better than bottled." [emphasis added] Meaning, not always.

Consider this request for action in the Food & Water Watch article, "What America really needs is increased funding for public drinking water and water treatment.
America has some of the safest tap water in the world but many cities operate water systems that were built before World War I. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that there is a shortfall of more than $22 billion per year between the funds available for repair and upgrade of pipes and treatment plants and what is needed to keep water safe for human and environmental health."
[emphasis added]

"She doesn't want to expose the 7-pound Lhasa apso, named Kosmo, to trihalomethanes. Since 2005, the chemical byproduct of chlorine decontamination has been detected in the water at levels that exceed federal safety standards, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection."

"The entire bottled-water business today is half the size of the carbonated beverage industry," says Jeffery" [Nestle Waters]...

Some states are considering requiring deposits for water bottles just like they do for other types of drink containers. Great idea!

There's no doubt tap water tastes much differently in different areas, and much of it tastes quite awful, but it seems relatively easy to filter out virtually all of the impurities leaving only water. This is essentially what most bottled water is: filtered tap water with maybe some minerals added back. I think KUB water from the tap tastes pretty bad, Oak Ridge's pretty good. Florida tap water I remember tasted bad, as if there was sand in it.

We too reuse water bottles a few times, though they say #1 bottles should not be refilled.

Andy Rooney did a piece on bottled water this week.

A Pur water filter on the kitchen tap and we fill old coke bottles with water and put it in the fridge to get cold to carry with us. We also have a Brita filter pitcher that we keep filled in the fridge for drinking from at home. Paying 1.99 for a 16-ounce bottle of water is ridiculous. We do occasionally buy the flavored sports waters, just for a change of pace flavor-wise, but we recycle most of the bottles and save a couple for refilling at our kitchen tap. Besides, a few years ago there was a MSM report about the guy that started the Aquafina water company, by filling bottles from his garden hose in his backyard. And Aquafina still comes from municipal water supplies in it's home city, no fancy artesian springs or such.

_________________________________________________________

"You can't fix stupid..." ~ Ron White"

"I never said I wasn't a brat..." ~ Talidapali

they say #1 bottles should not be refilled

I did not know this. I believe the bottled water I have are # 1 bottles. Thanks for the info.

I hope it is safe. [What you don't know can't hurt you?]

Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.

When I think of bottled water, I think of this stuff.

For those who don't remember, more info here.

Wearybottom Associates

I did not know this.

I guess I didn't either. It never made much sense when it was going around, so we've reused them a few times. (They get hard to clean after a while anyway.)

Thank you, bizgrrl. Your reaction caused me to actually, like, you know--look it up, and now I'm relieved! Also found this and this. The latter says that polycarbonate might be a problem, and those are the bottles that are sold expressly for drinking water. All our PC bottles have leaked since they were new anyway.

I don't remember that episode, but the Minnifield part was a giveaway. One of my favorite shows of all time.

We too reuse water bottles a few times, though they say #1 bottles should not be refilled.

The local Wild Oats sells purified water in bulk... maybe I'll look into that.

I've also thought about getting an inline ozonation unit to use in tandem with a GAC filter. Sterilize that stuff.

(As far as carrying water with me and reusing, I use Lexan.)

____________________________

I'm a guy in a Reagan mask -- and I'm running for President!

PET (Recycle code 1) and Lexan (7) bottles both leach bisphenol-A into the stored liquid. This is either totally harmless or really, really bad for you depending on whether the research was funded by the plastics/food processing industry or not. The body takes the stuff up like estrogen. There are now measurable levels of this stuff in the oceans and no way to get it out.

The safe stuff seems to be #2 (cloudy, milk jug stuff), 4 and some sources say 5. There was a good piece on this in the Hellbender a year or two ago, but I can't find it online. This talks about some of the same stuff:
http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/114/bpa

I ended up switching to aluminum SIGG bottles after doing some research on it.

They still carry the Wild Oats shingle / brand on the storefront here in Green Hills.

____________________________

I'm a guy in a Reagan mask -- and I'm running for President!

we have about a zillion of 'em and they're #4s

What do you buy to get a #4? I checked my water, cranberry juice, and other bottles. All are #1s.

Ah yes, better to ingest invisible poisons than grody looking iron oxide that won't actually hurt you?

Actually, PEX is a polyethylene, so no (known) nasties leaching out of it. But it's not (yet) recyclable in this crosslinked variant.

for me

We all know why W. C. Fields never drank water.

Wearybottom Associates

For some reason, I am reminded of Gen. Ripper and Purity of Essence.

I grew up on well water, so I have a hard time drinking straight from the tap. If it is really cold I'm usually ok. My parents' well is less than mile from White Oak Creek/dam on the Oak Ridge reservation, so maybe it wasn't so good for us. But, our home water comes from Watts Bar lake, so who's to say it is any better. We have a filter on the fridge which removes all the taste-hopefully there is nothing else in there that they do not list on the quality reports.

The KUB water at our office is better than the Watts Bar UD we have at home, there's no way I could drink it unfiltered.

Here's an excellent article on the bottled water biz:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/117/features-message-in-a-bottle.html
~m.