Drinking Tap Water

[Happy Lady]

We have been drinking tap water here for 23 years and have never had any problrms. First, in Recoleta, in an older building where the tank was sealed and cleaned once a year and the water was analyzed. We used only cold water to drink and cook. I'm sure that the pipes must have been old ones. Now, in the province of Cba., our water comes from the river which runs through our town and we have a water purifacation plant in town. I don't know anything about the results of the testing here as it is really not a subject of conversation. We are never ill with gastro-intestinal problems and have never taken any Pepto. We use a Brita water filter for our drinking water and I know that the filters don't do that much, but, the filtered water does taste better and has no smell of clorine. We live in a house and have our tank cleaned once a year and . . After reading all the comments, I wonder if maybe we should have the water in our tank analyzed? We have never used bottled water as we do not like the idea of drinking water that has been sitting in plastic bottles. We never drink it in restaurants either, even though in some cases, it is almost forced on one. In restaurants, We just drink wine. We really probably drink too much wine in Argentina.
But, how much is too much?

 

[mikic007]

Friend from aysa explained me, that if all is in regulation and water comes from river, there isn't a problem. But in smaller cities in provincia the water has arsenic inside (it's in the soil, not artificial) and due to the farming also other contaminants.

There are reports of higher cancer percentages in some areas, but I know some almost 100 years old people (abuelos of my girlfriend) that always drank tap water and they are still around. Many of their neighbours died much younger from cancer... It's about body, genes, lifestyle and maybe just bad luck. I guess stress have bigger impact, but if you know your water is bad, it's probably better to buy it or use good filters (there are some very good ones on the market, against arsenic and flour also..).

 

[EJLarson]

We just drink wine. We really probably drink too much wine in Argentina.
But, how much is too much?

No such thing. Argentine wine has been scientifically proved to be healthful in any quantities. You can look it up.

 

[RuthB]

I have been advised never to drink the tap water for a few days after a rain storm.

the drainage systems cant cope. bad water from the drains is often sent back up the pipes because the city drainage systems cant cope with the quantity of water
hence all of the serious flooding there is when it rains, really rains, really really rains........

so we only drink bottled after a serious rain storm!!

 

[Tangerine]

Wow, great post Bajo_cero2. Thank you very much. I was wondering where the water comes from. Is it recycled city waste water? I know that in California this is what is coming out of taps. I called the water department and they confirmed it. So it makes me a little queezey to think of it's origins but I'd bet that bottle water is probably from tap also. Very hard to find natural spring water in a bottle.

Do you have a credible link about recycled water coming out of the taps in California?

 

[scotttswan]

It has 2 ppm.

 

[scotttswan]

Do you have a credible link about recycled water coming out of the taps in California?

Shitloads of water you drink is treated water. Do you think the little villages up stream are treating their sewage before pumping it into the rio plata?

 

[clooz]

Do you have a credible link about recycled water coming out of the taps in California?

Having lived in California for a while, I can give you the names of a couple of water districts and aquifers to search for, that illustrate the diversity of public water sources in California, and the long history of issues. Basically each water district in Ca contracts for different water sources. In the San Francisco water district almost all of the potable water comes from the Hetchy Hetchy reservoir in the Sierra near Yosemite, and tastes natural. Hetchy Hetchy is filled by the snow melt each Spring when there is enough snow. Forty miles to the South, the Santa Clara water district takes most of its water from wells in a large aquifer under Santa Clara County. This water has a very high mineral content and tastes really bad as it comes out of the tap. Waste water from the chemical research facilities and the old military base in Silicon Valley flows into the drains and during storms into the storm drains thus into the rivers and the Bay, thus sometimes into the aquifers under the valley. So well water has some chemical pollution from factories as well as a very high calcium content. For example, in the area of Barons Park in Palo Alto the aquifer was polluted by industrial chemicals from the Stanford Univeristy industrial park. The water from all sources is treated before being supplied as potable water, but this does not remove the high well-water mineral content, and though it lowers the concentration of industrial contaminants to within regulations it does not competely remove them.

There is a long standing problem of chemical contaminant regulation which is that you get what you choose to measure. The simplest way to explain this is by example. When the regulation for the percentage of mercury in water released from an industrial factory into the river was set as parts-per-million, the factories just diluted the waste water before release by pumping clean water in with the polluted water. The amount of mercury being released was diluted to meet the regulation. The factory was able to release more mercury by diluting the effluent with more clean water. You can see that the regulators got regulated water and the factory got to release more waste mercury, and the public got more mercury into the water supply. The contest between regulators and regulated polluters has the effect of transfering part of the external cost onto the public.

I'm not a water expert, but I have a degree in organic chemistry, and I worked for a large US company that systematically falsified chemical test results, though not of public water supplies, so I am cautious about taking test results at face value.