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Posted on 06/23/2007 11:24:17 AM PDT by restornu
SAN FRANCISCO: Is city water better than bottled water? Mayor Gavin Newsom thinks so.
Newsom has issued an executive order banning city departments from buying bottled water, even for water coolers. The ban goes into effect July 1, and will extend to water coolers by Dec. 1.
The move was billed as a way to help stem global warming and save taxpayer money.
"We're hoping to set the example for the private sector and other cities in getting off the bottle," said Tony Winnicker, spokesman for the San Francisco public utilities commission.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
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The story next week will be, “Huge supplies of bottled water found in Newsom’s, Anderson’s kitchens.”
He could be endorsing water purifiers?:)
This person has never hit the water bottle. Call me crazy but I drink tap water, although I would drink well water if I could. The house I bought had a well but the owners filled it in about five years before I bought it. I guess that I have been fortunate enough to live places with the water looked clear, did not smell or did not have a taste to it, either that or there is something in my subconscious that tells me bottled water connotes snobbery.
Mayhap....there is no sufficient amounts of American/ Utah water reservoirs to sustain a large metropolitan population in a semi-arid region.
Well I get a case of gal bottle water a week and I ran out and could not get to the store I tried the tap and it was harsh yuck!
Sounds like Bloomberg fingerprints on this!
Ban smoking, ban transfats etc
Can’t complain about that.
1) Bottled water does not have to pass the same purity tests that tap water does.
2) Some bottled water is just bottled tap water.
3) Taste tests show that 50% can’t tell the difference, 25% prefer tap and 25% prefer bottled.
When our community water system (at my old house) sold to the Borough Water Authority, we went from mostly spring water to all well water. That was what drove the sale - the state was requiring significant changes in “public” water that essentially favored well water.
That was fine, even though the well water was harder than hard. Then, because the Borough water system was expanding, they added an additional chlorination station out in our area (making 2 on the system). Apparently the law requires them to show a certain level of chlorine in the water at the furthest points from the chlorinator to meet clean water standards. As the system expanded more, they’d increase the amount of chlorine so they could pass at the furthest point - that made the chlorine in our neighborhood really strong. Some days I’d turn on the faucet and the running water would smell like a public pool.
Do you know what they do when people start to complain about the smell and taste of the chlorine? They add ammonia to cut the smell. That’s the point that I started buying bottled water to drink - not only was the taste of public water poor, but they were adding a cocktail of chemicals that I just don’t think can be good for us. The government requirements for safe water has a checklist of what you can’t have in certain amounts, primarily geared toward bacteria and only covering a few chemicals... Luckily, where I live now I have my own well, which we treat with UV as a precaution - it tastes great, makes great coffee, and doesn't leave lime deposits on everything. I rarely buy bottled water now.
San Francisco’s water used to be quite good - it came (still comes?) from the Hetch-Hetchy reservoir in the High Sierras, a few valleys over from Yosemite.
Depends on where you live; have tasted water in other parts of the country/world that had a definite 'ugh' factor.
Our water up here, thankfully, is good enough that from-the-tap routinely fools my water-snooty friends. Poured from 'brand name' re-used plastic bottles they don't know the difference!
Those bottles do make it easier to carry around tho'...
It getting hotter but you don’t dare drink bottled water because if you hydrate yourselves it will end up in a landfill. Why get out of bed we will just hurt the earth and ourselves. Sometimes a silly EMO rant just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
I went to a conference in Berkeley. I couldn’t drink their tap water. Even the Coke (coming from the machine, not bottle or can) tasted bad because they had to use the tap water.
San Francisco actually has always had very good water because it comes from the Sierra Nevada via Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. IIRC, the system has changed, and it may not come from Hetch Hetchy, but it still comes from the mountains.
New York City also had great water, because it came from the Adirondacks.
So some cities do have really good water. If buying bottled water from elsewhere was just a status thing, he was right to cancel that expense. People can fill their water bottles at the office fountain or cooler, if the water’s good. If it’s bad, however, he should be reasonable and have the city procurement offices look for the cheapest source for bottled water. Or people can bring their own.
Is San Fransisco still part of the United States?
If your water has an ‘ugh’ factor, a simple Brita filter (or the like) will improve the taste a lot. We have pretty good tap water here; but, there’s always a bit of a chlorine taste, and sometimes silt or algae in the reservoir — the filter takes care of all that for a tiny fraction of the cost of bottled water.
That said — I don’t like bans.
I've been drinking S.F. tap water for over twenty years and I'm still not gay. And the taste hasn't changed either. I support this move by the mayor. Bottled water is a luxury. The taxpayers should not be forced to provide such for the city employees. If they don't like S.F. tap water, they can bring bottled water of their choice to work with them.
Hmmmm ... I wonder how much it costs to process all that $h!t and p!$$ that becomes tap water?
“This person has never hit the water bottle.”
I bought some bottled water at a C-Store once to put in my radiator after a hose popped off. That was the only time I have ever bought it.
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