Household drinking water safety

[Darienne]

Daily I get two food recalls downloads, in addition to this eGullet topic, one Canadian, the other American and international.  How to depress yourself first thing in the morning....

[palo]

2 hours ago, Darienne said:

How to depress yourself first thing in the morning....

My father used to tell me you have to eat a peck of dirt before you die and there was a bar in the Bahamas called "Sit and Be  Damned"  - both seem apropos

 

p

[Darienne]

22 minutes ago, palo said:

My father used to tell me you have to eat a peck of dirt before you die and there was a bar in the Bahamas called "Sit and Be  Damned"  - both seem apropos

 

p

I'm sure that living on a farm on a dirt road with always two large dogs who have the run of the house has guaranteed that 'peck'....it's more the e coli and salmonella and listeria kinds of things that will do you in....  We do have our well water tested regularly.   That water ends up in our food and that of our guests.

 

Edited December 19, 2022 by Darienne (log)

[palo]

My father did live on a farm on a dirt road but didn't have two dogs, but the chickens did have the run of the house - he also said there's clean dirt and there's dirty dirt

 

p

[rotuts]

@palo 

 

your father was correct .

[gfweb]

We have a well that tested positive for coliforms.  For years we used that water to wash our veg. Who knew the veg was safer than the water?  LOL.

 

There's a UV sterilizer now.

[Darienne]

1 hour ago, gfweb said:

We have a well that tested positive for coliforms.  For years we used that water to wash our veg. Who knew the veg was safer than the water?  LOL.

 

There's a UV sterilizer now.

We recently bought a UV sterilizer also.  No coliforms...but much bacteria over the summer.  Not too much fun cleaning the water while expecting guests in two weeks and hoping it all worked out.  Which it did. 

Edited December 19, 2022 by Darienne (log)

[Nyleve Baar]

Darienne I know you live in my neck of the woods. We've been in this house over 40 years and our well water tested perfectly until just a couple of years ago, when we got some coliform show up in the results. I started to worry that all the recent residential and road construction has messed with our water source so we put in a UV thingy. Water actually tastes better than it did before so I'm pretty happy. And no longer worry that we might kill some random houseguest. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

As some may know I rely on our county old person para-transport service to get to work most days.  Today the driver related that a client he takes once a week to Shoprite to buy groceries and bottled water explained her tap water was contaminated with arsenic, so she does not use it.  I know where the woman lives, and I know her water supply is the same as mine.  Test results by law are published and arsenic is not a problem.

 

The driver asked her about taking showers and she replied she does not.  The driver told me he is requesting a dump truck from the county so that she can ride in back.

 

[liuzhou]

This issue came up again yesterday in the Dinner 2024 topic. I was asked by @KennethTabout my local water supply here in China.

 

In general, the advice given is not to drink the local tap water anywhere in China. Few people, including me, ever do. When I first came here (1996), I didn't even brush my teeth with tap water, but was never concerned about washing vegetables with it (not logical, I know). I would use bottled water for teeth and for drinking. I soon gave up the teeth related usage. As someone mentioned on the thread yesterday, people do get acclimatised to the local water and less prone to negative reactions.

 

So, when I get visitors from Europe or North America, I advise them to stick to water for teeth cleaning and to only drink bottled purified water. Ice cubes in bars are made from purified water and safe.

 

Local Chinese friends simply don't believe me when I say the water in the Uk is generally safe to drink. A couple of disgraceful water pollition scandals in Britain in recent weeks have only confirmed their views.

 

In more rural settings in China , people always boil the local water. In fact, trains and hotels always have supplies of boiled water available in samovars on trains and vacuum flasks in hotel rooms. Many people even in cities still hold on to their flasks. I found one in this rented apartment when I moved in.

 

4 litre vacuum flask

 

I can buy purified water in large (19 litre) bottles for use with this type of dispenser – most people have them at home, as do I refills are cheap and delivered to the door.

 

 

Additionally, I buy in these 555ml bottles for convenient portability.

 

 

I buy in boxes of 24, again delivered to my door.

 

 

China has very little ‘mineral water’ and no sparkling / carbonated water, although imported Perrier, Evian, San Pellegrino etc are available, though expensive at up to five times the price of local brands. But nearly all the local waters are ‘purified’.

 

The only time I’ve had a problems with water, albeit a serious one, was in 2012 as reported here in an article I wrote for a Beijing media company. The ‘problem’ lasted less than a month.

 

Yizhou is a small city in Hechi Prefecture in the north west of Guangxi. It is a sleepy sort of place which has yet to benefit from the development being carried out elsewhere in Guangxi. It is popular with the locals in summer as it lies in beautiful karst scenery similar to that of Yangshuo, but definitely much less touristy. There are many riverside fish restaurants, but most popular are the boat rides along the Longjiang River, some of which drop you off at “minority villages’ where you can partake in mock marriage ceremonies. I’ve been “married” there more than once. Never saw the girls again. The first village I visited was actually built as a movie set and no one really lived there.

 

Apart from that, nothing much really happens there, although in 2008, it made international newspapers when twenty people were killed in a chemical factory explosion.

 

Now it has hit the headlines again. On January 15 2012, alerted by the discovery of hundreds of dead fish in cages in a reservoir on the river, local authorities tested the water and discovered cadmium levels higher than the permitted safety level. Cadmium is a highly toxic heavy metal used in batteries, electroplating and in some industrial paints. Exposure can lead to kidney failure or cancer.

 

On Thursday January 19, the Hechi government issued a statement saying that the cadmium level at Luodong Hydropower Station at the river’s lower reaches was 0.0247 mlligrams per litre, three times higher than the official limit. Other reports also mentioned that arsenic levels were above permitted levels.

 

The authorities warned local residents not to drink the water and ordered dams to be opened to dilute the chemicals and hopefully bring levels back to normal. They began dosing the river with dissolved aluminium chloride in an attempt to neutralise the contaminants. At the same time, they started digging wells and arranging other alternative water sources. Investigations later revealed that the pollution was caused by a discharge by Guangxi Jinhe Mining Company, which operates upstream.

 

After flowing past Yizhou, the river meanders west before joining the much bigger Liujiang river which then flows south to the first major city in its path — Liuzhou, Guangxi’s industrial centre. The river loops through the city centre and is the venue for international water sports events etc. Thereafter, it flows south east, eventually joining the Pearl River. Several years ago, it was possible to take a ferry from Liuzhou to Guangzhou, but no longer.

 

The news from Yizhou also trickled down to Liuzhou over the Chinese New Year weekend and Monday’s New Years Day. I first read about an outbreak of panic buying of bottled water on Tuesday January 24 but I visited the city’s three largest supermarkets that day and saw no sign of anything unusual.

 

By Thursday, the news had reached the wire services and appeared on the BBC news site. By then, people really were panic buying and they still are.

 

This morning (Friday 27), I visited the two largest supermarkets in the city centre. Nancheng department store had completely run out of bottled water but in Lianhua Century Market, people were queuing up with stacks of boxes of bottled water piled up in their trolleys. My local corner shop, also operated by Lianhua, is completely out of water, too.

 

It is only today that the local media are beginning to report anything about this, perhaps out of their usual reluctance to print bad news, or perhaps because everyone is still on holiday. Liuzhou authorities are saying that pollutant levels in the Liujiang are well within safety limits and urging people to behave calmly. At the same time they say they are monitoring bottled water supplies and trying to ensure that there are no illegal price hikes as happened in March of last year when people idiotically began panic buying salt to supposedly prevent radiation poisoning in the wake of the Japanese nuclear accident.

 

There is a long tradition of swimming in the Liujiang. Every day, no matter how cold, elderly men and women can be seen slowly swim long distances up and down the river, trailing their clothes behind them in floating boxes. Today, when I walked by the riverside, there were none. And I don’t suppose the locals will be buying much fish this week.

 

Update: At 23:36 on Friday January 27 2012, Liuzhou officials sent this message to all cell phones in the city.

 

Don’t worry about your tap water. It’s safe. If it becomes necessary to control the water supply, we will give 24 hours notice via the media.

温馨提示：只要水龙头拧开出的水，必定是合标的安全用水，请大家放心使用
在控制供水之前24小时，将通过新闻媒体提醒您储存好备用水。【代柳州市应急指挥部信息发布组发】

 

Now, I just stick to drinking beer.

 

 

Edited June 3 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

I will add to this by quoting @KennethT

 

Quote

In most of SE Asia, you shouldn't even brush teeth with tap water unless it's been boiled first.  It's well known to carrier a plethora of viruses, including hepatitis and typhoid.

 

The same in south Asia and many other places. Always get reliable local information from qualified sources!

[C. sapidus]

6 hours ago, liuzhou said:

On Thursday January 19, the Hechi government issued a statement saying that the cadmium level at Luodong Hydropower Station at the river’s lower reaches was 0.0247 mlligrams per litre, three times higher than the official limit. Other reports also mentioned that arsenic levels were above permitted levels.

 

 

Interesting. The US EPA Maximum Contaminant Level for cadmium in drinking water is 0.005 milligrams per liter (5 parts per billion).

 

National primary drinking water regulations: US Environmental Protection Agency

 

Community water systems are required to test drinking water for a variety of contaminants and report results annually. More than 90% of US residents get their water from community water systems. Water quality in private wells is not federally regulated.

[gfweb]

We have a well that has tasty water but occasionally a + bacterial test. 

 

So we have a UV sterilizer and a full treatment set-up.  About the same price as getting city water.

[paulraphael]

In the US, tap water faces stricter government standards than bottled water. No one's really responsible for telling you what's in bottled water, or what the actual source is.

 

Tap water might still be bad ... just because it's regulated doesn't mean it passes all the tests. You can typically find annual water quality reports online at your utility's site.

 

In Brooklyn our water is excellent ... except for the chlorine they add in swimming-pool quantities in the summer, and except for the silt and nasty flavors the water picks up from our building's pipes. A regular carbon block filter takes care of those problems. The water is then perfect for drinking, or tea and coffee. 

 

In Philly, the water has higher levels of metals, worse organic pollutants, and they add chloramine instead of chlorine (harder to filter out). It's also quite hard. I put in a 2-stage filter in our kitchen there: a softener, and then a combination filter that has a catalytic carbon stage (works on chloramine) and a stage with KDF filter media (works on metals). The results are quite good. Not quite as good as Brooklyn water for drinking or coffee, but plenty good enough. 

 

With well water, I'd be looking for things like agricultural runoff, and surprises from fracking or landfills or who-knows-what. In addition to the biological goodies. Did someone say "coliforms?" To paraphrase The Who, "It's a fecal matter, baby."

[liuzhou]

In my account about the water where I live, I somehow forgot to mention that the city's water has been declared by the central government in Beijing to be China's cleanest for each of the last three years. What criteria they base that on, I don't know but it is a matter of civic pride.

[gfweb]

3 hours ago, paulraphael said:

 

With well water, I'd be looking for things like agricultural runoff, and surprises from fracking or landfills or who-knows-what. In addition to the biological goodies. Did someone say "coliforms?" To paraphrase The Who, "It's a fecal matter, baby."

 

We are in good shape here. Uphill from the cows. No fracking or industry.

[Maison Rustique]

I seldom like the taste of tap water and mostly don't trust that it doesn't have something in it that I don't want so for years I've used Brita filters. Now I hear that Britas don't remove anything from water except the chlorine taste. I'm not sure what I want to do about this. If anything.

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, Maison Rustique said:

I seldom like the taste of tap water and mostly don't trust that it doesn't have something in it that I don't want so for years I've used Brita filters. Now I hear that Britas don't remove anything from water except the chlorine taste. I'm not sure what I want to do about this. If anything.

If you're in the US (meaning you don't need to worry about filtering out various viruses/bacteria), long time member and dearly missed Andisenji had raved about these for years.  They filter out heavy metals, chemicals and just about anything you could be worried about, unless your water supply regularly contains typhoid.

[Maison Rustique]

37 minutes ago, KennethT said:

If you're in the US (meaning you don't need to worry about filtering out various viruses/bacteria), long time member and dearly missed Andisenji had raved about these for years.  They filter out heavy metals, chemicals and just about anything you could be worried about, unless your water supply regularly contains typhoid.

Thank you! I plan to move to a new house in a few months and will look into those when I do.

 

[Tropicalsenior]

Most of the tap water in Costa Rica is safe to drink, at least for the residents and people that have been here for a long time. I have heard of some tourists and newcomers to the area that have had problems. The only problem is that we do not have a consistent water supply throughout the whole country. A lot of the smaller areas like ours have their own water supply.

I only know of one person that has had serious problems. She only eats organic products and washes everything that comes into the house in a mild bleach solution. She's been in the hospital twice now with E coli. Go figure!

[rotuts]

@Maison Rustique

 

I think Brita filters remove more than chlorine  

 

I use the filters to remove calcium , and I use test strips 

 

to check raw results.   Ca is removed.

[liuzhou]

Some short-term western visitors / tourists to China bring those sterilising machines (probably made and sold much more cheaply here) and solution for babies' feeding bottles to clean vegetables. They mostly don't have babies.

How or why they expect to be washing vegetables in restaurants is never explained.

Edited June 4 by liuzhou (log)

[paulraphael]

Britas use a carbon filter, which in addition to chlorine removes a pretty broad range of organic chemicals. They must also have another stage of some kind of ion exchange material if they also remove calcium (they probably replace it with sodium, just like any other water softening filter). 

 

I don't know how well they do with chloramine, which is used by many water treatment plants these days. If your water doesn't taste like a pool when it comes out of the britta, then it's doing fine. 

 

I used to use britta but stopped because the filters need to be replaced often, and the price adds up. If you don't replace it on schedule, who knows how effective it will be.  Also the ritual of waiting for the water to drip through gets old. We now have under-sink systems that I built from industry standard parts ... standard 10" filter housings, and a beverage faucet. This keeps you from being locked in to some company's proprietary filters. You can look at your local water report and figure out what kinds of filters to get, and buy them from anyone.

 

A good carbon block and sediment filter costs under $10 and lasts at least 6 months. The combination filter we use in Philly costs about $30 and lasts a year. I forget how much the water softening filter costs; we just recharge that with salt once a month. These should last years. 

[paulraphael]

5 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

Some short-term western visitors / tourists to China bring those sterilising machines (probably made and sold much more cheaply here) and solution for babies' feeding bottles to clean vegetables. They mostly don't have babies.

How or why they expect to be washing vegetables in restaurants is never explained.

I've got a portable filter for hiking and climbing. This thing is amazing; I've been using it for years. It would be perfect for travel to somewhere with iffy water. The water coming out tastes great. 

It probably has enough capacity for a small group of people (maybe a small family) on a relatively short trip. For long-term use or for more people you'd probably need a heavier-duty solution.

[liuzhou]

7 minutes ago, paulraphael said:

It would be perfect for travel to somewhere with iffy water.

 

I wasn't talking about iffy drinking water. They bring these things to use to sterilise vegetables and meat.

 

Trying marching into a restaurant in China with your steriliser and solution to clean the food before the chef cooks it simply isn't going to happen. And 99% of tourists have no cooking facilities in their accommodation.