City Water = Yech!

So on Canadian cable there is a show called How It's Made, which a friend describes as industrial pornography. It has lousy production values, awful narrative, etc, but its one of my favorite shows because, well, it explains how things are made, or more correctly how 3 or 4 things are made in a half hour. I love seeing how things are made.
The other day they showed the process for producing what we call 'city water', all the way from the inlet pipe to the consumer. Its disgusting! [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] Not only is the water they use filty and full of bacteria and chemicals, they ADD all kinds of chemicals to make it drinkable. I'm not talking just chlorine here, they put all kinds of stuff in there. I'm not sure I'll every be able to drink city water again without thinking of that show. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]
I taped it. I figure the next time some city slickers visit and ask me if I don't worry about my well water I'll show them the video. I always tell them my water is clean, bacteria and chemical free water (I have the assays to prove it) that could get dirty, while theirs is filthy water they try to make clean. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

... and if you think that's horrible .... just imagine what they have to do for the "city water" they get from Buffalo Pound Lake for Regina .... triple yech!
I'll stick with my wells!
They used to have that show on HGTV south of your border but I haven't seen it for awhile .... I do love those shows as I find them extremely interesting. My favorite part of This Old House was always the plant tours!

Yeah, all those chemicals just to make it "drinkable"
I'll stick to me spring water. I have a bunch of friends from
the city that come out to my spring to get their drinking water. They use the "city water" for other uses (flushing down crap etc) and the water company charges big bucks
for that stuff!!
Shawn

I installed my city water line last year after the road project was completed. I tied it over this spring but seperated the system to allow my well to feed the cold water faucets in the sinks and refrigerator and city water to flush toilets and run the washer etc... Once in a while I will run into the laundry room to refill my glass while working outside, it tastes like a cup full of chemicals.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] We live in rural Iowa where the underground water has been contaminated by farm fertilizers over time. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] We have what they call "rural water" piped in for domestic use. The water tastes great [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] but in the year we've been here we have noticed quite a "build up" on the faucets and other water-handling appliances, and it does still have a "trace" of farm chemicals showing in the analysis. Just last week I installed a Reverse Osmosis setup [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img] w/ chemical filter unit in the basement to treat the kitchen water and the ice maker, and then a softener with charcoal filter ahead of that to treat all of the household water. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] It has made a HUGE difference in the taste and "texture" of the drinking water, and in another week I'll have it re-checked for traces of chemicals. The chemical removal filters are a long way from "perfect", but they still help a lot. We've noticed that our laundry soaps go a LOT farther now, [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] and our skin isn't as dry after showering. I have a water-handling background and have done a lot of water treatment work, both domestic and municipal. The way I saw it, we were here for the long term, so any "trace" was going to become a "concentration" in our bodies over time from drinking the same water. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] We'll eventually get part of the cost back through the reduced use of soap and detergents, but the equipment was mainly for peace of mind. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

Its amazing that we did without a softener for as long as we did. Our water is so hard it was 'off scale' on the hardness tester kits I bought! I had to rework the chemistry to get a reading! (I, know, I know, never trust a hardness kit, but mine was for aquarium fish and it was as accurate as the $300 analysis I paid for).
Anyhow, my wife was using a jug of liquid laundry soap (about a gallon) a week. She used liquid because the powder wouldn't disolve completely. Our fixtures we being destroyed, etc., etc.. I use about CDN $7 of salt a month, and figure I've already paid for the softener in soap savings alone.
Of course, the salt scares a lot of people, but not me. Salt is good for you - unless you've got high blood pressure.

Actually, the salt is used as an an "ion exchange" and you don't really get it in any kind of harmful quantity. The softener trades salt ions for hardness ions.....as I've always understood the process. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]

You are absolutely right. What you end up drinking is a very dilute solution of baking soda, as I understand it. Nonetheless, the 'salt is bad for you' propaganda has been very effective so a lot of people think that because you put salt in the softener, softeners are bad for you. Other people simply leave it at Sodium is bad for you, which I doubt (we gots lots of sodium in our blood stream) but still a lot of people figure softeners are bad for you.
Which makes a big opportunity to these fraudulent magnetic, etc., 'softeners', which do nothing whatsoever except relieve you of your money. And use electricity.