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questionable tap water

Saudi gets most of its moisture from aquifers. They do have the world's largest desalinization capacity, but they are still depleting their aquifers. Even with the aquifers still functioning, they have shortages in many places, because its really expensive to build the desalinization capacity they need. Desalinization is also very energy intensive. Saudi has lots of energy. Florida doesn't.
 
There are water filters in stores including Wal-Mart that use reverse osmosis as only one step, of 5 or 6. So that stuff should be really, really pure. Still WAY cheaper than bottled water. I can't imagine paying more for water than gas, which is how the cost of bottled water usually works out to be.
 
Razeontherock said:
There are water filters in stores including Wal-Mart that use reverse osmosis as only one step, of 5 or 6. So that stuff should be really, really pure. Still WAY cheaper than bottled water. I can't imagine paying more for water than gas, which is how the cost of bottled water usually works out to be.
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I agree. It makes way more sense to drink the water that's in your house than to buy it. Unless you're going on a trip or something then it really comes in handy. After all, keeping yourself hydrated in extreme heat can and will end up saving your life and sometimes having a water bottle is your only option.
 
HeIsRisen2018 said:
Unfortunately I know what you mean. :sad We're lucky that we don't have to go through that.
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WHOA. The entire desert Southwest is in the same danger. Major aquifers supplying other parts of the US are also being depleted. Lake Superior hasn't reached normal levels in many years, despite all the rainfall. The great lakes are the biggest fresh water supply on the planet.
 
Razeontherock said:
WHOA. The entire desert Southwest is in the same danger. Major aquifers supplying other parts of the US are also being depleted. Lake Superior hasn't reached normal levels in many years, despite all the rainfall. The great lakes are the biggest fresh water supply on the planet.
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Everyone likes to point fingers in the opposite direction but there are few reasons for this and I personally don't believe climate change has been a factor long enough to be a major player....yet.

The aquifers are supplied by rainwater that permeates through the soil. Overall, the 48 contiguous states have seen the average annual rainfall increase over the past 120 years. One area that has seen less is in the southwest however not considered significant at this point. This information is available here. I've pasted the synopsis below.

  • On average, total annual precipitation has increased over land areas in the United States and worldwide (see Figures 1 and 2). Since 1901, global precipitation has increased at an average rate of 0.08 inches per decade, while precipitation in the contiguous 48 states has increased at a rate of 0.17 inches per decade.
  • Some parts of the United States have experienced greater increases in precipitation than others. A few areas, such as the Southwest, have seen a decrease in precipitation (see Figure 3). Not all of these regional trends are statistically significant, however.
So why are the aquifers drying up? Because we are drawing more water out than what is capable of replacing through the soil. And why is that? Couple reasons.
  1. Population growth puts higher demand on ground water because we don't use surface water for our supply systems.
  2. Farming practices. More and more farmers are installing irrigation systems and pattern tiling in order to gain more control of the amount of water saturation on crop lands. This is a double-whammy because first, the tiling redirects water that would normally filter through the soil to replenish the aquifer to ditches and eventually to river systems which carry it to the oceans and second irrigation draws water from the aquifers.
  3. Our lifestyle. Every home, business, structure, and paved area such as parking lots, highways, sporting complexes, etc. take land that is normally collecting and absorbing rain water to replenish the aquifers and redirecting it over ground to ditches, rivers, and storm systems where it eventually ends up in our lakes and oceans.
  4. Our demand. Compared to the 1970s the average home in the US today is about twice the size while the average family size is almost half the size. What this means is that along with our population growth each person today demands about four times the roof area which impacts item 3 above.
These are just a few quick examples that I could come up with off the top of my head.
 
As someone who comes from a place that has more lakes that the rest of the nations in the world combined, you would think there wouldn't be a problem, yet there are a certain number of predictable days per year when the quality gets bad enough they turn on the boiled water advisory for everyone in this and other areas. Usually late spring/early summer when the rivers come up.
 
WIP said:
Everyone likes to point fingers in the opposite direction but there are few reasons for this and I personally don't believe climate change has been a factor long enough to be a major player....yet.

The aquifers are supplied by rainwater that permeates through the soil. Overall, the 48 contiguous states have seen the average annual rainfall increase over the past 120 years. One area that has seen less is in the southwest however not considered significant at this point. This information is available here. I've pasted the synopsis below.

  • On average, total annual precipitation has increased over land areas in the United States and worldwide (see Figures 1 and 2). Since 1901, global precipitation has increased at an average rate of 0.08 inches per decade, while precipitation in the contiguous 48 states has increased at a rate of 0.17 inches per decade.
  • Some parts of the United States have experienced greater increases in precipitation than others. A few areas, such as the Southwest, have seen a decrease in precipitation (see Figure 3). Not all of these regional trends are statistically significant, however.
So why are the aquifers drying up? Because we are drawing more water out than what is capable of replacing through the soil. And why is that? Couple reasons.
  1. Population growth puts higher demand on ground water because we don't use surface water for our supply systems.
  2. Farming practices. More and more farmers are installing irrigation systems and pattern tiling in order to gain more control of the amount of water saturation on crop lands. This is a double-whammy because first, the tiling redirects water that would normally filter through the soil to replenish the aquifer to ditches and eventually to river systems which carry it to the oceans and second irrigation draws water from the aquifers.
  3. Our lifestyle. Every home, business, structure, and paved area such as parking lots, highways, sporting complexes, etc. take land that is normally collecting and absorbing rain water to replenish the aquifers and redirecting it over ground to ditches, rivers, and storm systems where it eventually ends up in our lakes and oceans.
  4. Our demand. Compared to the 1970s the average home in the US today is about twice the size while the average family size is almost half the size. What this means is that along with our population growth each person today demands about four times the roof area which impacts item 3 above.
These are just a few quick examples that I could come up with off the top of my head.
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Yup. Population growth is also what drives the increases in farming productivity.

In my area, consideration for roof area vs soil absorbtion is taken to such an extreme that an empty lot within line of sight of my house can't be built upon. A young couple moved here from CA to care for an aging relative, and did everything possible to solve the problem. It can't be solved. It's easy to tell how much money they spent on the project because they tacked it onto the listing price over and above what they paid for it when they gave up in defeat and decided to sell the property. They don't realize all this is a matter of public record; that property will be vacant, and for sale, for a long time.

In the (much) bigger picture, there was always plenty of land for the indigenous people. Had we honored our treaties with them and listened to their wisdom on ecology, a whole world of I'll would've been avoided. Our Nation would've grown more sensibly too; slower and more controlled. We'd have a better Nation today for it, in a myriad of ways.
 
I filter mine because it is disgusting where I live. A foul smell will come out of the faucet with the start of water flow if it don't. I live in a river town where there are lots of ponds and lakes. Near one of those ponds is a pork processing plant.
 
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