Drinking Water Site : Common Drinking Water Questions

Going to the sink and running you a glass of clear, cold water do not take much effort. But have you considered where your drinking water comes from and if it is safe. Sure, we buy bottles of water each year but who makes sure that the water found within those plastic cocoons is actually safe for human consumption?

It is a complex process that begins with your bottle or glass of water and continues on to the federal government. If you have not given your drinking water much thought it is time to do so because there are plenty of chances you are taking each time you take a drink of water. So for your informative pleasure this article will take you through some of the questions you may have about your drinking water. From source to tap this is your one-stop-drinking information.

The Environmental Protection Agency is the government group that helps maintains the level of your drinking water through the Safe Drinking Water Act. The Safe Drinking Water Act helps make sure that the quality of your water, not how it looks or tastes, is pure enough for human consumption and is free from any pollutants. It governs water treatment facilities and bottling plants.

Well, that depends on who you ask. Many bottling companies market their products as "pure" when in reality they may be from the same water source that comes from your kitchen sink. Other companies are now adding flavors and vitamins to their waters in order to entice more consumers into choosing their brands over the competition. It really comes down to personal taste and preference.

Your tap water is monitored by your local waste water management facility which in turn is governed by the Environmental Protection Agency. It is completely safe to drink unless a boil order is in effect due to some sort of breakage in the line. Many people complain about the taste of tap water. There is a great solution. Try buying a water purification system that also comes with flavor injectors! You can have your favorite flavored water from home for just pennies a day and you will be saving the environment from an overabundance of plastic water bottles that many people do not recycle.

The EPA has set up analytical tests for local sanitation offices to run in order to ensure that the drinking water is free from a certain level of contaminants such as arsenic, lead and other pollutants. On a random basis they will come in and require a water sample so that their team of scientists can check the water sample for themselves rather than rely on reports mailed in quarterly by the sanitation department.

Well water can be just as safe as bottled water or tap water. It will have a different taste though because all of the impurities such as lime that are found naturally occurring in water. Some people actually prefer the taste of well water to that of tap or bottled because of that "hard" water taste. Unfortunately hard water is really rough on sinks, toilets, bathtubs, showers and hot water heaters with the lime scale buildup. The solution is to buy a water purification system and softening system to remove the impurities.

Well water is not considered protected under the Safe Drinking Water Act set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency due to it is not being consumed by the public. In fact the SDWA only covers areas in which ten or more homes are using the same source water. Your private water supply will need to be monitored by you but you can buy kits that test the quality of your water to ensure that it is safe for your consumption.

In 1974 Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act as a way to monitor the drinking water standards of all US public drinking water facilities. It does not cover well water but it does cover bottled water facilities. It does cover ground well water sources where public water facilities tap into though and of course rivers, streams and lakes.

It keeps your drinking water safe from pollutants, harmful chemicals and runoffs from farm pesticides and other dumping into the water that you drink. Before 1974 there was a real problem with contaminants making their way into the homes of citizens who were ingesting such pollutants as arsenic and lead. Both of which we now realize can cause death and cancer.

A few years ago a major bottling company of water was discovered to be using tap water as their "pure mountain spring water" instead of what they advertised. This helped fuel the debate on whether or not bottled water was any better for you than tap water. Conservationists and environmental protection agencies have long argued that this trend towards bottled water is harming the environment. The sheer volumes of plastic water bottles in our landfills are testament to that fact.

Any company that deliberately misleads the public and their consumers through false advertising is subject to fines. The amount of fines and whether further actions are taken against the falsifying company are subject to the FCC and the EPA. If you have purchased a bottle of the water that has been proven to be falsely advertised as something else when in reality it was tap water, you can file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and contact the company for a refund.

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Today's Tip On Drinking Water

The bottled water industry will continue to grow as more people become concerned over the safety of their source water. Even though the United States is one of the cleanest water basins in the world, many people do not want to take the risk and become sick from drinking tap water. But give it a chance and do some research. You will see that it may not be so bad. You will save money and be doing your part to keep plastic waste to a minimum.