Tap Water vs. Bottled Water

My DW is a big Pellegrino swiller...I drink from the fridge tap...

RB

I am a tap person... even without a filter!
GASP! We have the bet water in the whollllle world where I live. No matter where I go visit, no matter what water I drink, I always want to come home and have a big ol' glass of our hometown water!

[Chrisada]

I'm all about the tap, but we keep it filtered in the fridge.

Filtered. Actually, straight from the tap is okay here b/c we have a water softener (a big, overpriced filter).

Tap is where it's at.

[Rapunzel]

I laughed when I saw this! Now THIS is a safe debate (I think? I hope?)!

I'm tap.

[scrub-jay]

I used to work as a Microbiologist in the Microbiology Department at a large Water District, so I have some authority on this subject.

First off, this depends on where you live, what water supplies your tap (well water, public water, etc) and the quality of the plumbing (pipes/etc) in your home. That being said - as for safety - there are far far more laws and regulations established for public drinking water agencies than there are for bottled water. Plus, these agencies are required to inform consumers of annual test results.

Within the microbiology department, we primarily tested 30+ drinking water samples (taken from throughout the water district) for E. coli and general non-specific bacteria. Any positive result required massive additional testing and if continued, reporting to the public health district and consumers. This is only a small example, but the amount of testing that water districts do on their water (drinking, source water, treated water) is extensive.

Check your local water district's annual report and remember that you will never get a similar report from your bottled drinking water (which almost ALWAYS comes from municipal tap water anyway!)

If you want more details - you know where to find me,

[ladymoreta]

I drank bottled water growing up because my parents had a well. The water was tested and safe, but it tasted funny because it had a lot of minerals in it. Since then, I've always just gone with tap water. We have a filter on our refrigerator, but we really need to change it. Not noticing any problems, but it's past the date we were supposed to.

How often do you change your refrigerator filter?

[radwife]

I'm all about the tap, but we keep it filtered in the fridge.

Ditto!

[lirio]

I drink tap at home. When I first moved to Chicago the water tasted a little weird to me, but now I'm used to it.

At the school I worked at in MD I didn't drink the water. The other teachers said not to. They flushed the pipes to make the water safe? And the sinks and classroom water fountains were off limits, so I just didn't drink any water from school!

[mommax3]

tap, always.

[SoonerTexan]

Brita filter on the tap--the cheap college way of doing it.

I'd prefer my water not to be kept in potentially toxic low-grade plastic...I'm one of those snobs who uses stainless steel water bottles

Did you hear that older Sigg bottles have BPA in the lining? They are exchanging them for free.

[Sheherezade]

Tap here, too. But we pour the Pellegrino for dinner!

[Vishenka69]

Growing up in NYC, it was always tap. If there's free bottled/cooler stuff at the office, I'll drink that. Right now we're on well but have a filter in the boiler room, so once again it's tap. When out, it's usually tap as well, except for a few locations around here where waters tastes funny.

Has anyone seen Penn&Teller's episode on bottled water? Hysterical.