Monday, June 27, 2016

Water, Water, Everywhere ...

Water, something most of us take for granted, or at  least we did. I remember living in town in the late 40's early 50's, we had a well and plenty of water. I never thought about how refreshing it was, as I was a kid. There was no taste or smell, it was just water. I lived in a small world. As far as I knew, nobody ever bought water. If asked, I'm sure that I would have considered it pretty stupid.

I know this is a pretty deep subject, given that people drank mead and ale as a normal thing centuries ago - it killed the bacteria in the water. This said ... People were aware that pollution (at least the ground) caused problems with the drinking water.

We never learn, do we?

So ... Here we are, our wells are polluted, as well as our lakes, streams, rivers and oceans. Now, we buy water. How many ways are they coming up with to correct this problem? Not nearly enough.

Label from the last water DH picked up.

Purified, I wonder if this has always been a word. Purified with Flavor Enhancing Minerals. 
I added the fat and sugar free, myself. Why not? Did water ever come with sodium - so much that it was a bad thing? Is the water they start with, ocean water? Purified brings some pretty strong images of the original water to my mind.
This, by itself, is scary. Scary that it comes from Wal Mart and scary that there are so many brands out there. What are we really drinking? Maybe it's time to be drinking mead again. Just a thought.
 
 

23 comments:

  1. I've always lived where having enough water wasn't a problem even though when I lived in Utah I did have to pack it from town to home, had a 300 gallon tank in the truck for that. Anyway, I never bother to buy bottled water...

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    1. We've had to get water elsewhere since we bought the place. It smells like pond water coming straight out of the well. We have a huge filter thing, but I still won't drink it.

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  2. I lived near a small town once that had so much sulfur in the water it smelled like rotten eggs. In early days people came there for healing baths. We live in a city so I just use water from the tap. Never been too much on bottled water and especially not when they add flavors and vitamins to it. I try not to think what's in city water.

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    1. Had a friend with sulfur water and I agree, it does stink. She also had so much sediment in it that her filters would clog in no time. Her only alternative - bottled water or move. City water is supposedly 'safe' to drink, at least they say it is. I can't stand the stuff they put in it though, ish! (Like licking the bleach spout)

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  3. Water is a tricky thing. My dad was a well driller (water wells) and even natural spring water can have things in it you don't want like sulfur or lead. I think a lot of people have gone to buying water but that is becoming tricky as well. Distilled, natural, mineral, purified, spring, vitamin,...the list goes on. Who knew you had to read labels when buying water but you do.

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    1. There are choices all over the place nowdays. I didn't see anything on the label about it being certified or anything or did I miss it? How are we to know what is really in our water?

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  4. Our water is really cloudy and has a strong dirt taste. My husband swears they pump it in straight from the river but I hope he's joking.
    We use bottled water to drink because I simply don't trust the tap water.

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    1. That almost sounds like iron water, Blech! I don't blame you one bit.

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  5. You can get bottled water here cheap enough, they have water stations around town that put it in your own five gallon jug for a buck. But the city water seems fine to me so I just drink it.

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    1. I couldn't lift that jug on a bet. LOL. Yes, I believe you can do something like that at WalMart, but where to keep it? Our big bottle cooler dies some time ago, and it was always in the way. I know, I know, we should find room and save on those plastic bottles, they are part of the pollution ...

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  6. We get a report sometime about our water and it is supposed to be very safe to drink but I don't like it. Sometime when I fix my bubble bath it looks dark. I know we're making a lot of waste with the bottles but I do recycle. When I was growing up Daddy bought water from the neighbor who had a well and paid $2.00 a month. He wouldn't permit us to abuse it and waste.

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    1. I would worry too, if my bath water looked dark. I wonder what % of contaminants are allowed to still be considered 'safe'. (BTW - a Britta water filter pitcher commercial was just on, have you ever tried one of those?)

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  7. Bought drinking water here in Australia is Spring Water, or mineral water which is fizzy. Aerated if you like the fancier word.
    Most of Australia's tap water is fine, but here in South Australia, the water is hard and when I was little it made me sick and the taste was awful. It's improved a lot since then, but still upsets my stomach so I buy spring water in 10 litre casks.
    Tap water is fine when boiled and used for coffee, but boiled and cooled to drink, it still tastes wrong to me.

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    1. Our bought used to be spring water, too, but now they clean it up and call it whatever water, like this water ... I was a bit shocked to see the P word on water, of all things. DH uses the water from the tap, I do too - if I am going to cook with it. I know what you mean about the taste.

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  8. I still use tap and out the garden hose. I just can't see buying cases of water. Oh there been a time or two that I was in town a thirst and bought a bottle of water.
    Coffee is on

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  9. I still use tap and out the garden hose. I just can't see buying cases of water. Oh there been a time or two that I was in town a thirst and bought a bottle of water.
    Coffee is on

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    1. If your water tastes good and you feel fine about drinking it, that's super!

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  10. If I lived where the water was crap I suppose I would buy or make a distiller. Here I could use a solar distiller a lot.

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    1. If I could manage it, I would probably do that too.

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  11. flint mich is a good example of man's lack of diligence or care...

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  12. Water and quality of water is indeed an important topic. It is hard to fathom how for centuries (and unfortunately today still) we often have corporations who feel dumping wastes into water is fine.

    PipeTobacco

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    1. Good point. So many of our rivers and lakes are so contaminated that we cannot eat the fish we could catch there. Certain ocean fish are also inedible because of this pollution. Is there no end in sight?

      Thanks for visiting!

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