What is your water source? Municipal water supply or private well?

Hello Destiny, I'm so relieved to learn that the Koolaid guy isn't knockin' on your door. Does your water authority provide you with testing results?

Well, I don't really know. I haven't seen any published results, although that doesn't mean there are none. All I know is that 2 of the places I lived, one was from a Corps of Engineers fishing lake and dam that always smelled like fish, and my hometown's water began tasting and smelling quite foul shortly after they pulled that car with the body in it of the water supply there. Both had been there for quite a while, and were only discovered during a drought year. The locals were not pleased. This place so far has seemed to be pretty decent, although that is probably subject to change at any time.

FYI Destiny...your water supply is tested annually and your water company should be sending out a report to all customers once the results are in or at least making them. You may also be able to request one by phone. When I was in Maryland these reports were dull and boring but, down here in Florida, our water company does a great job coming up with creative excuses for the high levels of cr@p in our water.

Hello Spalladino, Well, the adage that prompted this discussion is "There must be something in the water...", so you're very much on target. Though, in all honesty this discussion has turned out so interesting and such a deviation from my original launching point that it's almost taken on a life of it's own. Thanks for contributing. Lake Okeechobee huh? Have your levels risen back to comfortable levels yet? You were suffering from serious lows, right? So, you have an aquifer in south, central Florida? Wow, what is your elevation there? And, does any salt water find its way into the aquifer? I actually thought that y'all were relying on surface and shallow sub-surface waters. "If they say the water is safe, it's safe." That really caught me off guard. Thanks for the belly laugh! Wait a second, the state is buying a private enterprise, US Sugar? How did they get that one passed the voter? And, how scary is that???

Yes, after reaching a record low of just under 9ft, the lake is in fairly good shape now. Tropical Storm Faye helped a lot by dumping a lot of water directly on the lake but many counties were under strict water restrictions for a long time and many community canals became unusable. "So, you have an aquifer in south, central Florida? Wow, what is your elevation there? And, does any salt water find its way into the aquifer? I actually thought that y'all were relying on surface and shallow sub-surface waters." I believe the lake is 14 feet above sea level and that it's the highest point down here. It's surrounded by an earthen levy with a system of locks which allow boaters to enter and leave the lake. The issue of the aquifers are actually the reason behind our Governor's decision to buy U.S. Sugar and 180,000 acres of land that they own. The Everglades is vital to our ecosystem and there have been concerns about it's health for a long time due to water releases from the lake and runoff from heavy storms. There's a huge Everglades Restoration project in the works which will allow over a billion gallons of water to be captured and stored instead of sending it to the sea to avoid flooding. But, U.S. Sugar's land to the south of the lake stands in the way. The decision to buy Sugar wasn't put to a vote or even made public until the deal had been struck. There was no way Sugar was going to sell just the land the state wanted...they've had it hard enough competing with foreign beet sugar thanks to NAFTA...and there were and still are other offers from other interested parties...so the Gov. (and his tan) offered $1.75 Billion for everything...which has now dropped to $1.34 Billion. The Board jumped at that deal, I'm sure! The shareholders will be paid off...my husband's brother will get around $80k for his shares. The open issue is that Sugar owns land all around the lake and beyond so the state will lease that land back to Sugar for up to 7 years. After that it's anyone's ball game. An interesting aside...an unnamed party is attempting a hostile takeover of Sugar...buying up shares of stock...so Sugar is offering to buy outstanding shares. My husband's brother received an offer from Sugar but he's not jumping yet. He's going to wait and see if he gets another offer...and if it's better. Sugar has shown no loyalty to it's current and former employees so there's little loyalty out there for them. They're the reason I'm out of work...again, by the way, since they reorganized my department into obscurity when I worked for them and was stupid enough to take a position at the railroad they own. They forced my boss to cut our budget to the bone even though we show a tidy profit every fiscal year because they're greedy and wanted to make as much profit as they could before the sale went through.

We generally by bottled water for the convenience during travel... which we do alot of.

Greetings Sir Rodney, Indeed I am having a fine day. How 'bout you? It's a challenge to fit your response into a category. You have muni water, but you drink bottled. Is your choice for bottled a certified 'pure' brand? Or is it ... hold on to your hat 'cause this is a hoot. " A company is bottling New York City tap water and selling it in stores for $1.50. Tap'd NY founder Craig Zucker says when he first came to the city in 2003 from Ohio he could tell right away that the tap water was better. Last year, he founded his bottled water company, which promotes itself as having a "local twist.''" http://www.ask.com/bar?q=nyc+bottled+water&page=1&qsrc=0&zoom=Brand+Names+of+%3CKW%3EBottled+Water%3C%2FKW%3E%7C%3CKW%3EBottled+Water%3C%2FKW%3E+Companies%7C%3CKW%3EBottled+Water%3C%2FKW%3E+Brands&ab=7&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.1010wins.com%2FNYC-Tap-Water-Bottled--Sold-in-Stores-for--1-50%2F2989226

LadyLuna, I'm great also! Our preferance for bottled water is for convenience mostly but also for lack of trust in the municipal system and the smell of the water coming out of the tap. I started carrying water to work with me when I observed the maintenance people changing the filters on our drinking fountain. What was in those filters would gag a maggot! I just don't believe they tell us everything necessary about our water. I also realize that the water we buy comes from some municipal water supply somewhere but it is also purified like the guy in NY does his.(I don't pay $1.50 a bottle though)

Hello Bebs08, Yeahhhhh! That's very cool! The folks on the local water system in my neck of the woods pay approx. $75.00 plus tax per month for their water. It's difficult to justify a vegetabel garden when you're charged per 100 gallons, huh?

Hello Kiran8, Honestly, there are no verdicts at this time! It seems quite the standard for folks from your country to use both. So, now I'm intrigued. What do you mean by the municipal is not sufficient? P.S. I love your quote. I'm a adament supporter of thinking caps!!!

Thanks for the follow up, Kiran8. Wow! That's got to be very unnerving for those who do not have a separate, private well. Do you know what the underlying source for the municipal water is? Is it an aquifer that is being drained down, or is it replenishing?

Hi, ...In my country we have a fixed time for water supply, after which the taps go dry, the water is collected in storage tanks and will have to last until the next day when the water supply resumes. Sometimes the water stored is not sufficient for all our needs, so then we pump up the water from borewell into the tank for our use which is very frequent ..waiting for the verdict!

Hello MaryLynn321, Welcome to MyLot -- it's nice to see so many fresh faces (or avatars as the case may be). I hope that you thoroughly enjoy your time here. Do you know if your source is an aquafir or an underground river? Either way, how terrific that it stays fresh & cool.

You're welcome MaryLynn. And, thanks right back at 'cha!

Our well has an underground creek or river under it. Most likely a creek. Yes it is nice that it stays fresh, especially in summer, when it is hot out. All we have to do is let the water run a bit longer in the house and we have ice cold water. Which is really nice on those hot days. No need for ice. Thank you for the warm welcome, yes I am enjoying it on myLot. Hugs MaryLynn

Hello Red, We're at 531'. It's so pure that it's actually kind of sweet. Our annual tests are astounding in that they consistently register almost nothing beside calcium carbonate and sodium. Though even the sodium only ranks about 2% of the national average. Yes, your observation about dual parameters is 100% on target.

Me? The Southern tip of the Rockies, in Land of Enchantment -- New Mexico.

Where do you both live, RYBDog and Laydluna??? PS Our water is municipal. We filter the drinking water, but the tap water tastes fine...

Hello XParanoiax, Free flowing spring water -- nice! That's a real gift. To you specific question; at this early stage it's inconclusive, at best.

Definitely! Ah well, I had to ask ^_^ good luck with your study, Luna!

Hello Taskr, I hear ya' about sulfur -- ewwwww! So, do you filter your tap water for drinking, buy bottled, or have it straight up?

My fridge cools and filters it so that's where I drink it from. It doesn't taste particularly good, but it's adequate. My wife only drinks bottled water though. She drinks a LOT of water so she's much pickier about the taste than I am.

The bottled water, like Dasani, that is purified with minerals added is SOOOO GOOOD! But we drink it filtered from the fridge like TASKR. I'd rather drink bottled Dasani, like his wife, but it just got too expensive... We mostly drink only water, so that's a lot of bottles we would go thru!

Hello X, Tapped roadside springs? Wow! How cool is that? I know of an artesian in a rural area that was bequeathed to the general public by the former owner. He had UV and bacterioflora filtration installed, and provides for pure, sweet water to be available for the public 24x7x365. Neat huh?

It's actually pertty cool. fresh clean water flowing naturaly for anyone who comes by with a jug.

Hello my friend, With your neck of the woods being as sea-level, or therabouts I'm surprised that there were deep wells. Just out of curiosity what is an East Coast FL deep well? I know where I live ours is considered an average well at 531'. Deep around here is typically defined at 850' and deeper. 'Course, our altitude is approx. 7000'.

A deep well here is 100+ feet.lol Too much deeper and you will be in the Atlantic. We do have several Artesian aquifers that are literally underground rivers that flow through the limestone and coquina rock throughout Fl. Shalom

Thanks for the follow up. Underground rivers -- now that makes perfect sense! I will admit that I'm astonished at how incredibly interesting and educational this discussion has become. My expectations were very different when I started it, but I have been really pleasantly surprised at the direction it has taken.

Hello Swetyethot, What causes your well water to be not drinkable?

Oh,its kind of salty,its not regarded as drinking water here.

Hello KatieDidit, I think it's a great idea to get a hand pump for your unused well. If the quality is good, then it will probably be very comforting (and perhaps life-saving) to be power-outage proof. We have the same option, though not from our 531 foot well, rather from our water storage tank. A manual hand pump means that we can get water even during the most inclement weather. If you haven't already looked into it, you can get manual hand pumps right out of the Harbor Freight or Northern Tools catalogs. The adage? "There must be something in the water." Of course, this particular bit of passed down wisdom generally carries with it a situational suffix.

Ah, O.K. I get it. I remember that saying going around when 5 of us working the same job all became pregnant at the same time. Yours truly included. Thanks for the leads on where to buy a pump. That's got to be easier than making one though I have the plans to do that. They're pretty simple plans but what stalled me was finding someone to do the welding part for me.

Hello Kitty, I simply can't believe how incredibly interesting this discussion has turned out to be! You are the first person I know to say that they live in a superfund area! My parents lived in the Capital District Region until the mid-60s. Then, they retired there. The IBM phenomenon you describe sounds nearly identical to the GE phenomenon a little north of you. Yup, power outages are a real drag. If you're at 80' I understand why you don't want to run the generator too much. That's a pretty good drop. Just as an FYI, we installed a water storage tank (ours is 500 gallon) for just such an emergency. It's really easy to attach a hand pump to a surface storage tank. So, maybe it's something to think about down the road, eh? 'Course, I have no idea how often your power goes out there. We still have relatives in the area, and their power doesn't drop off much. So, maybe it's not worth the trouble and expense. Anyway, thanks for sharing. Very, very interesting!

It actually may not be a bad idea, when you consider the possibility that 0bama may just bring about the complete collapse of our entire nation and infrastructures such as the ones which provide electricity may be among the first to fail in America's apocalypse. I do plan to grow as much of my own food as I can on my property this year, and harvest the seeds for replanting at the end of the season. Hubby also wants to get a wood burning hot water heater, which is expensive but a damned good idea, we live surrounded by forest so there's lots of wood! Now if only we could get a wood burning electric generator we'd be made in the shade, LOL!

Hello Lexus54, Thank you. I was pretty sure that your country reguarly purchased water from neighboring nations. How is your water quality?

Hello K1virus, Being from an island nation, isn't water a real issue in your country? What would be considered a deep well in your country/region? Thanks!

Thank you gunagohan! If I may ask, how far down are you drawing from that finds you extracting salty water?

Hello Djemba, Yes, the cost of having a private well drilled are quite high indeed. Do you happen to know how deep your grands' well is?

Hello Ronit_mat, Another new face -- Welcome! I hope that you thorougly enjoy your time here. "... those other things mixed in..." -- hmmm yes, I believe that I do know what you mean. Which is why I value our pure well water so very much!

Thank you for sharing Venchaul. And, welcome to yet another new face. Enjoy yourself here. Does your municipal water smell like minerals & sulphur or contaminants?