again, i ask. what the HELL kinda water comes out yall faucet???

and what did yall drink before the whole bottled water/filtered water phase?

i really think its advertising at its finest.

My faucet water isn't nasty tasting. Afterall, I cook with it, rinse my mouth with it, wash my face with it, shower with it, yada yada. I just don't drink it in my gallon a day routine. I assume it also isn't the most contaminated thing in the world.

Before the bottled water/filtered water phase, not sure when it began, my family was putting tap water in old milk gallon containers and thermoses(or whatever). People made do with what they had. :)

The filtered water/bottled water emphasis is about convenience and also marketing. All sorts of inventions may not be a matter of life or death but are great now that we have it.

I actually like the chlorine taste in tap water. It tastes so fresh so clean!

which leads me to my next question: how far do you "tap water--yuck!" people take it? do you boil your bathwater? do you cook with it? what do you fill your icetrays with? and what do you wash your hair with?

i just wonder, if you wouldnt drink it, why would you cook/bathe with it? and trust me, there are worse things you could be eating/drinking. you know whats in a bottle of Coke?

With the exception of when it was contaminated (which was not fun), it was OK for cooking, cleaning and bathing. As a kid, I drank LOTS of Kool-aid-it masked the flavor. We would sip it out of the hose only when we were desperate when we were outside playing. I had to develop a water drinking habit as an adult.

I was raised on well water and it ruined me for anything else. I can drink tap water in some places, but not the vast majority. I use a Brita pitcher and I typically use that water in my cooking as well (unless I need a lot of water and then I'll give in and use tap). I actually do use tap water to brush my teeth and rinse afterwards although sometimes the rinsing grosses me out.

Re: NC water smelling, this is more pronounced in eastern NC/near the coast.

I don't know. But it turns white if you leave it in the glass (unless you use a filter, which I always do, even for ice cubes)

:)

As a "tap-water--yuck!" person, I'd say:

No, I don't boil my bathwater.
No, I don't use tap water to cook with.
I fill my icetrays with bottled water.
I wash my hair with tap water.

Basically, if it goes IN my body it's going to be bottled water. ON my body...tap.

Sure, there are worse things I could be eating or drinking but it's just one of my "things."

My mother started buying bottled water from Sparkletts right after the big Los Angeles earthquake of 1971. The tap water was unsafe. It's part of Southern California culture and "earthquake preparedness" to have several gallons of bottled water available at all times. We just started drinking the bottled water on a regular basis and ever since then (I was 5) I can't stand the taste of most tap waters. Where I live now, the tap water is disgusting. I buy the 3-gallon bottles that the company picks up when empty, sterilizes and uses again.

ETA: My mother can only drink distilled water (minerals + only one kidney) so she doesn't have a choice. She has to buy bottled water.

I'm never without my Poland Spring bottle - which I've been refilling from the tap since last August. :)

I used to drink bottled water all the time until a few years ago when my husband started researching phthalates and their health effects (hubby is a chemist). I've started to drink water from my Brita filter. If I'm going to the gym, I'll fill up an aluminum thermos with water from my Brita pitcher.

you know thats unsanitary right? get you a new bottle like now.

I'm one of those weird people that can taste differences in water.

I want to switch over to a Brita + tap, but I'm scared it will taste weird :(

PLEASE don't reuse those plastic bottles - I'll try to find a website, but I know that the plastic harbours all kinds of nastiness. And washing them doesn't seem to help - recycle them, but don't refill. When the first reports of that came out, those metal refillable bottles became popular.
http://environment.about.com/od/heal...ic_bottles.htm
eta - apparently, you should be more afraid of the BPAs than bacteria!

I miss the well water we had in TN. It was great - but I like the Britta system now.

LOL @ reusing plastic bottles. I wonder how dirty and beaten his almost-year old bottle is.

I used to do that a few years ago until I discovered the REUSABLE plastic gallon jugs. Clean them inside and out between refills and fill it up.