is my tap water safe to drink?

[Razor Blade]

A lot of those off the shelf water purifying pitchers and faucet gizmos are fine for removing some of the tap water taste... but that's about it.

[DrMacintosh]

9 minutes ago, mr moose said:

Um, yes, you don't pay someone to fix your house if they don't know how to fix houses, you don't employ a chemical technician if they don't know the difference between litmus paper and toilet paper.   Therefore  if you worked at water treatment plant and you knew the guys testing it didn't know what they were doing or where just paying the EPA lip service, then you wouldn't drink the water would you?  you would probably also tell your family not to drink it too.  Hence my original post stands.

This is the only king of thing I ask for

http://www.westminster-ca.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?t=69917.15&BlobID=14137

 

A water report, not blind faith 

[mr moose]

7 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

https://www.bing.com/news/search?q=Flint+Michigan+Water+Crisis&FORM=FRESET

 

I don't trust Water Treatment workers to do anything 

You know that failing to test and and failing bureaucracy is not the same as actually testing and know that the tests aren't being done/right? 

 

Again if you work in a plant and you know corners are being cut are you going to drink the product?

[spartaman64]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074D8KKKW/ref=as_at/?creativeASIN=B074D8KKKW&imprToken=lgI40DrC-y13lnuDo1qEtg&slotNum=0&ie=UTF8&linkCode=w61&tag=lunagfwf1-20&linkId=6ccaf3b79eb4869e8159e046d807de86

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M1FGVMQ/ref=as_at?creativeASIN=B01M1FGVMQ&linkCode=w61&imprToken=.ouXzlzeh4C1LHjfJKB1zw&slotNum=1&tag=faucetg-20

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C0YIJA2/ref=as_at?creativeASIN=B00C0YIJA2&linkCode=w61&imprToken=.ouXzlzeh4C1LHjfJKB1zw&slotNum=0&tag=faucetg-20

what about these? i remember a friend had one that has a chamber with UV light that kills bacteria along with the filters but i cant find any of those

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, Razor Blade said:

A lot of those off the shelf water purifying pitchers and faucet gizmos are fine for removing some of the tap water taste... but that's about it.

I'd say most of those small shelf water purifying add-ons are only good at removing physical contaminants such as minute debris particles. Even if they feature reverse osmosis, the membrane has to be constantly replaced so personally I'd rather have someone do it for me and I'll just pay a very small amount.

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, mr moose said:

You know that failing to test and and failing bureaucracy is not the same as actually testing and know that the tests aren't being done/right? 

If you know a test is not being done properly and you aren't telling anyone you should be charged with public endangerment. 

 

If people like that do exist, all the more reason to keep filtering my own water. 

[DrMacintosh]

2 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

Even if they feature reverse osmosis, the membrane has to be constantly replaced so personally I'd rather have someone do it for me and I'll just pay a very small amount.

I now Zero water at least gives you a sensor that gives a small readout of the water quality. the Filters are actually pretty robust.

 

[captain_to_fire]

4 minutes ago, spartaman64 said:

what about these? i remember a friend had one that has a chamber with UV light that kills bacteria along with the filters but i cant find any of those

Well looking for a trusted brand can be hit or miss. I'm not sure about US guidelines. Also, the duration for UV sterilization should not be less than 15 minutes

[mr moose]

4 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

If you know a test is not being done properly and you aren't telling anyone you should be charged with public endangerment. 

 

If people like that do exist, all the more reason to keep filtering my own water. 

 

So would you at least tell your family not to drink the water if you knew the tests weren't being done properly?  

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, mr moose said:

 

So would you at least tell your family not to drink the water if you knew the tests weren't being done properly?  

I would tell my family, but I would also alert the mayor, the governor, and my local officials so that way I wouldn't have to live with knowing that I let people drink lead contaminated water.....

[dizmo]

Your water is twice as bad as Flint MI. That said, they've come leaps and bounds, and as has been stated it's below the 15ppb that is allowed.

It's fine. Is it great quality water? Nope. In the 80's most water was significantly higher than that.

 

11 hours ago, fpo said:

I would say no, but that’s just me giving the benefit of the doubt. 

 

I wouldn’t drink water with lead in it. Especially above the averages. 

So you don't drink tap water at all?

15 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

https://www.bing.com/news/search?q=Flint+Michigan+Water+Crisis&FORM=FRESET

 

I don't trust Water Treatment workers to do anything 

That's down to oversight, not the workers themselves. Or do you think they actually have a say in what the bureaucrats decide.

12 minutes ago, Razor Blade said:

A lot of those off the shelf water purifying pitchers and faucet gizmos are fine for removing some of the tap water taste... but that's about it.

Truth. I wouldn't drink the water where I live now without a Brita filter. And it's not even that bad in this building, we're half a block from the reservoir.

[mr moose]

2 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

I would tell my family, but I would also alert the mayor, the governor, and my local officials so that way I wouldn't have to live with knowing that I let people drink lead contaminated water.....

So then what I said stands true.  If the workers at the plant or those who manage it refuse to drink the water or won't let their families drink it then it's probably not safe to drink.  If they do drink it, it is becasue they are confident it is being tested properly and being treated accordingly.

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, mr moose said:

So then what I said stands true.  If the workers at the plant or those who manage it refuse to drink the water or won't let their families drink it then it's probably not safe to drink.  If they do drink it, it is becasue they are confident it is being tested properly and being treated accordingly.

Sure, if that will end this

[spartaman64]

https://www.amazon.com/Drinking-Water-Test-Kit-Pesticide/dp/B01DMF8SH6

apparently i should test my water first before choosing a filter is this a good testing kit?

[vanished]

37 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

Simple distillation is not enough to get rid of heavy metals. In order to get rid of those, either the water gets subjected to 16 or 32 stages of purification like passing it to an activated carbon filter and reverse osmosis. Also, some pathogenic microbes can survive 100^C. Autoclave with 121^C at 15 psi can kill a lot more but that's impractical so they subject the water to either Ozone or UV irradiation. 

 

EDTA or Dimercaprol can be added to get rid of lead and other heavy metals by chelation but those can serve as contaminants as well so reverse osmosis and carbon filtration serves better purpose for drinking water.

I'll admit I've never thoroughly looked into this, but just on instinct, it seems odd to me that you could filter out atoms of lead, but that they will somehow follow the water and stick to it through a vapourization and condensation process.  Feels backwards to me...

[captain_to_fire]

6 minutes ago, spartaman64 said:

https://www.amazon.com/Drinking-Water-Test-Kit-Pesticide/dp/B01DMF8SH6

apparently i should test my water first before choosing a filter is this a good testing kit?

The problem with colorimetric DIY tests is that it is subjective depending on the person. I suggest you get a water sample and have it tested to an independent lab. Make sure they test for both heavy metals and coliform. 

[captain_to_fire]

8 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

it seems odd to me that you could filter out atoms of lead

Well lead and other heavy metals more often doesn't exists as a free metal but as a compound like lead sulfate or mercuric oxide so filtering them out is easy. 

[spartaman64]

4 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

The problem with colorimetric DIY tests is that it is subjective depending on the person. I suggest you get a water sample and have it tested to an independent lab. Make sure they test for both heavy metals and coliform. 

not sure if i want to pay 89 dollars for a test

[vanished]

19 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

Well lead and other heavy metals more often doesn't exists as a free metal but as a compound like lead sulfate or mercuric oxide so filtering them out is easy. 

Even so, boiling the water to produce steam and then condensing the steam back to water should rid it of contaminants like that

Thinking about it a bit more, the filter idea also makes sense.  But I'm pretty sure distillation works as well.

[captain_to_fire]

20 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Even so, boiling the water to produce steam and then condensing the steam back to water should rid it of contaminants like that

Thinking about it a bit more, the filter idea also makes sense.  But I'm pretty sure distillation works as well.

It has to be fractional distillation because many contaminants have less than 25^C boiling point differences with water and boiling/simple distillation won't cut it. https://www.britannica.com/science/fractional-distillation

 

[vanished]

3 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

It has to be fractional distillation because many contaminants have less than 25^C boiling point differences with water and boiling/simple distillation won't cut it. https://www.britannica.com/science/fractional-distillation

 

Hmmmm well lead sulphate certainly doesn't

[Speed Weed]

I think it is safe if you boiling the water before drinking it? 

[Zodiark1593]

26 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Even so, boiling the water to produce steam and then condensing the steam back to water should rid it of contaminants like that

Thinking about it a bit more, the filter idea also makes sense.  But I'm pretty sure distillation works as well.

If the boiling point of any impurities are similar to water, distillation alone will not work to remove them.

[Guest]

53 minutes ago, dizmo said:

So you don't drink tap water at all?

I don't but if I do, I usually have it from someone that re-purified it. 

I typically drink juice, milk & alcohol. Soda is kinda gross to me now. 

[Zodiark1593]

1 minute ago, DaPhuc said:

I think it is safe if you boiling the water before drinking it? 

*slips diethylmercury into water*

 

How much you want to bet?