Tap Water (Abroad)

[frank grimes jr.]

In the US, any water source which provides water to more than 25 people, is regulated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
In turn, the waters and surrounding areas to those waters are protected by the Federal Wetlands Protection Act.
Certain areas also use different treatments for their water, but that does not mean they have a different end result.

In areas of the world where water treatment is not viable, buy your water.
If you're any where else, use good judgment. If you're really that worried, buy some iodine tablets.

Water will obviously taste different in areas across the world, and as close as the next town over, due to the mineral content of those water bodies which supply the area.
And then of course, we come to the issue of groundwater vs. surface water and it's interactions with the nearby watershed. This is where Cholera came from.

[test_recordings]

You can get a filter installed on the pipe into your house...that auto filters all water.

Now THAT costs a grand or so...

my parents are on a major 'impurity' kick these past few years and had a 'reverse osmosis filtration system' installed at their home.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_osmosis

the underside of their sink looks like a nuclear reactor of sorts

Apparently that can leave you deficient in certain minerals due to the face it filters EVERYTHING but it does look interesting. Why isn't this done at the sewage works? It would get rid of The Pill residue at least

[frank grimes jr.]

Those RI systems are very expensive, and they do not handle large capacities of water quickly enough for the public need, as I am to understand.

[slothrop]

And then of course, we come to the issue of groundwater vs. surface water and it's interactions with the nearby watershed. This is where Cholera came from.

Random fact for the lahndeners - the Broad Street Pump, which caused a cholera outbreak so specific and localized that it lead to one of the really big breakthroughs in understanding how cholera (and other diseases) spreads and how to contain it, is about a hundred yards from Sounds of the Universe.

[slothrop]

Although obv SotU wasn't there in 1854.