OT sort of; bottled water

[jtees4]

You just can't beat that Beaver Piss Water!!! We should be the first to bottle it.

[Cam]

The concentrate is the mixture of minerals that give the water it's taste. It is mostly Magnesium Sulfate and Potassium Chloride. That concentrate is mixed with local, purified water at various bottling plants nation/worldwide before distribution just like Coke and Pepsi.

Cam

[David Starr]

And Evian spelled backwards is...................

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[jJim McLaughlin]

SNIP HAPPENS

Too few first class and eagle scouts around these days.

Making tap water storable and safe isnt difficult.

It takes an eyedroper and liquid clorine bleach, and you'll never know bu the taste its been "fixed" if stored in gallon or larger jugs.

[jJim McLaughlin]

All those folks with REI or Lands End or Eddie Bauer or L.L. Bean water bottles ain't dropping like flies, which means you, yet again, don't have any idea what you are spewing about.

No surprise that, though.

Dishwasher. Bottle scrub brush.

Bacteria are not an issue.

[Jeff Wisnia]

A story worth reading....

Jeff

[Eigenvector]

But it won't last for a year or more. Civil Defence has to replace the water kegs on a yearly basis to prevent bacterial and alge growth. Chlorine won't kill all the bacteria, there are even chlorine resistant bacteria. The only way to make it potable over long durations is distillation.

[Eigenvector]

No Jim, you are deliberately misinterpreting his comments.

Do you really feel that strongly about bottled water?

[Oren]

I use to drink bottles of Perrier*. Maybe in 1980 or so it cost 79 cents a bottle. I enjoyed the water and could down a liter glass bottle in a moment. It was before all the new rave on bottles water.

It had carbonation and tasted great...to me..quenched my thirst was the main reason.

Said back then; (IIRC) to be from "springs". I had doubts myself that this was a natural.

*

What's is Perrier made of?

Perrier is a natural mineral water. As defined by French law, this means water with a stable composition and healthy properties, as certified by the department of health and the national academy of medicine.

Perrier contains only mineral salts and carbonation (CO2). It contains no sugar, caffeine or calories. Flavoured Perrier* is a beverage made with Perrier natural mineral water and essential oil extracts.

-- Oren

"I didn?t say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you."

[jJim McLaughlin]

SNIP HAPPENS

No, I don't think so. Kjpro is making his usual unsupported sweeoping claims on a subject he knows nothing about. I merely pointed out that he is, as usual, blowing smoke. Hundreds of thousands of folks reuse water bottles every day in the US without adverse health effects.

Do you think that if there were documented adverse health effects from refilling disposable water bottles that the folks at dasani et al wouldn'rt be "warning" the publiu loudly to ot do it so as to pump up their sales of new sealed bottles?

I think anyody who repeatedly buys bottled water and oes not refill and reus the bottles is wasting money and resources. Their hoice, but its a silly choice.

>

[willshak]

Saw the movie. "The Heroes of Telemark" 1965.

[sylvan butler]

So cheap that the only reason they meter it is so they can charge you for the chemicals they put in. Ever figure the cost per gallon? It's cheaper than dirt!

sdb

[sylvan butler]

At least, that is what they want you to think you are paying for... You should read the test results on bottled water sometime. Some are good. Many are not so good.

sdb

[sylvan butler]

No they don't hav "to replace the water on yearly basis to prevent ... growth." Replacement is a matter of policy, it is insurance just like the stored water itself. That, and it is cheaper to replace than to test. The longer water is stored, the more likely something MAY go wrong, not necessarily that something WILL go wrong, even biological growth. The keg might breakdown or be damaged and start leaking, various other kinds of contamination can come thru the plastic keg, or oxidation can contaminate metal kegs. Or yes, biological growth is a possiblity.

LOL!!

That is utter nonsense for any reasonable definition of "long durations". Have you ever canned peaches or pears? Kill any organisms which might grow and make certain none can get it. Simple. Water can also be canned and then it is preserved for a very long time. And that is if you want certainty. Want to play the odds a bit? Unlike Vegas, most will win...

I pump water out of a hole in the ground that has supposedly been there for many years, then I drink it with no treatment whatsoever. My folks live in a small town that pumps water said to be several thousand years old, aka "fossil water," and distributes it thru the town without treatment. I'd consider that "long durations." Consider that water was on the ground since it was last distilled yet is totally potable today.

I also have two 55 gallon drums downstairs that I filled from my well in

2001. I was going to refill them last year, but the water was still perfectly fine so I left it as it was. I did put a few CCs of clorox in each barrel for insurance as I was filling it. But mostly the cool and the dark do the job. If I fill a clear soda bottle with water and leave it on the kitchen counter (think light) for a couple of months, it fills with something organic...

sdb

[sylvan butler]

A tiny bit of sea salt in the water will work just as well 99% of the time, be cheaper, and cut your sugar consumption. (As I sip a Mt Dew ;)

sdb

[mm]

At the steel mill, the guys in the hot mills used to take salt tablets. I think they took them as they felt they needed them, from a dispenser on the wall, but maybe there was a minimum on hot days.

I have this vague feeling that they stopped doing that 10 or 20 years ago, or someone claimed that they should do something else instead, but I don't remember.

[mm]

I heard that bottled water cost between 200 and 200,000 times the cost of tap water.

[Pete C.]

I'm not interested in bogus "test result" propaganda put out by the loony groups opposed to bottled water. I've spent days at a Coca Cola bottling plant and know full well how their products are produced.

[celticsoc]

I spoke somewhat abruptly, but I think my meaning was clear: water purchased in bottles under brand names is not of a higher objective quality than that which comes from the tap in most of the US. In fact, had I taken time to clarify, I might have pointed out that in some places, tap water is of a higher objective quality.

While there is a filtering process for bottled water, the standards in many municipalities (Chicago among them) are higher for tap water than for bottled water. In other words, in such places the tap water goes through more processsing than the bottled water. Testing done on bottled water versus tap water has shown, in many areas, that the tap water actually has lower bacteria count. This was, in fact, the topic of the Roe Conn Radio Show in Chicago

just a few days ago, when the bottlers were announcing the new labeling. In Chicago, the reason appears to be that the city of Chicago has set standards for tap water, while standards for bottled water are standardized nationally.

A couple points to note: Chicago water is among the most sophisticated in terms of municipal water treatment in the world. Other cities have sent people to Chicago to learn from them. Also, the level of purity of almost any water supply in the United States is extremely high. You'd have to search hard to find a non-potable water supply in the US.

I am far from someone who is chasing dwon ways to abide by a "green" agenda. My motives for keeping abreast of the topic, aside from professional, have more to do with personal finance. The cost of a bottle of water seems to typically hover around $1-$2 per pint for water. At the low end of this, water costs $8 per gallon. Water from the tap costs several orders of magnitude less, and there is little discernible difference between the two products. The more expensive may edge out the less expensive option in quality in some cases, but in other cases it is itself edged out.

With all of the above being said, those who live in hard water areas may well opt for bottled water of the kind from a water cooler. Inthat case, the cost of the water is closer to $1.25 per gallon.

[celticsoc]

when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

As I mentioned in a previous post, it is not necessarily true that bottled water is cleaner biologically than tap water. In many areas, tap water is bound by higher standards than those set for bottled water.

As far as I'm concerned, I am all for the guy who can market and sell tap water's approximate equal (we can quibble all we want over details, the difference is not significant in most cases, and bottled water doesn't always end up on top). I'm just not going to be a customer when there is a suitable substitute readily available and several magnitudes lower in cost. A pint of tap water costs about

1/100 of a cent. A pint of bottled water costs about $1.

There was, in fact, a restaurant (I believe it was The Berghoff, now gone) which was selling "Chicago Tap Water", which people would apparently buy by the case because of the superior water treatment in Chicago.