And my Chemistry Professor retired to San Diego. He should be smart enough to use a filter.

Facts and figures do more than just opinions.
I'll be linking this and one or two more posts up when I update my website. May I use a portion of your rant?

To csmount:
I couldn't agree with you more about bottled water.
Check this old post of mine about it:
http://current.com/items/90697831_ban-plastic-bottled-water.htm

You want people to make informed decisions, we don't want to support bottled water but we don't want to support a "falling apart" water infrastructure and contaminated tap water either.

This was an excerpt quoted in my old post, where I have offered a solution.
I will make a new post about it as mentioned in my previous response.

"American consumers are drinking more bottled water every year. They collectively spend hundreds or thousands of dollars more per gallon for water in a plastic bottle than they would for the H20 flowing from their taps.
Plastic bottle production in the United States annually requires about 17.6 million barrels of oil, enough to fuel more than one million cars.
About 86 percent of empty plastic water bottles in the United States land in the garbage instead of being recycled. That amounts to about two million tons of plastic bottles piling up in U.S. landfills each year.

To solve this, action must be taken from the federal, state, and local governments must protect the quality and integrity of our water resources.
Again investing in the maintenance and renewal of municipal water and sewage treatment plants, storage, and distribution. Our water pipes and sewer lines in the United States were built in the late 1800s, the 1920s.

Old, corroded water lines can break are not only wasting water but also opening avenues for contamination. Worn out or overburdened sewage systems can overflow into our streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans, creating serious health concerns. The National Research Council recently warned of more water-borne disease outbreaks unless we make "substantial investments" in improving our drinking water and sewage storage and distribution systems.

Every year, Congress debates proposals for funding clean drinking water. A 2007 bill provided $14 billion in federal loan guarantees over four years for water and sewer improvements. While the bill passed the House of Representatives, it has not yet passed the Senate. Unfortunately, even if it were to become law, it would still be insufficient in meeting our nation's water infrastructure needs.

Collectively, our communities fall about $22 billion short annually of what they need to maintain and improve public drinking water and sewage systems. Federal dollars are the only way to address this clean water infrastructure funding gap estimated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Government Accountability Office, and the non-profit Water Infrastructure Network at between $300 and $500 billion over 20 years. Much of the funding gap stems from government cuts to clean water programs."
From sustainabletable.org

Appalling, isn'it?

Thank you Government!
They thought: "Who cares if these people will get sick by drinking this water, we don't! And that's all it counts, let them rot just like those pipes"

And that's my rant.

http://www.free-tv-video-online.info/player/megavideo.php?id=DNPXNOXS

fast forward to 16:40 for penn and teller's take on this

Here is my rant from another post on current about bottled water. The contaminants you mention need to be dealt with at the source.
These are in all water...and buying a bottle of water IS NOT going to keep you from drinking them. Most of these contaminants are synthetic, and even naturally occuring contaminants like arsenic may not be removed with an RO system.

"All of the reports coming out in mainstream media about how contaminated the water supply is in the US appears to be geared toward the big business end end of water sales.
In other words...let's tell people their water supply is contaminated with all sorts of crap so botlled water sellers can keep their profit margines up.
Yes, there are contaminants in just about every water source in the US. Pesticides, herbicides, anti-biotics, excessive nitrates...and the list could go on.
However, many of these chemicals are in the parts per billion, and many of them ARE NOT removed in the bottled water process.
But...and this is a BIG BUT....no one talks about the crap in our food supply. No one talks about how the crap gets in our food and water supplies.
Wouldn't want to actually give the people the info they need to make informed decisions.

Reverse osmosis, the method used to make bottled water from your tap water, is readily available at most Home Depots, etc. in the form of a 1 or 2 gallon tank, a couple of filters and a little spout.
These are not expensive! The local Home Depot sells them for around 100 to 150 dollars. Consider what you pay for a bottle of water, and then consider how much water you can get from an under-sink filtration system.
No more plactic bottles thrown away in landfills. You can use refillable water bottles.
Cripes! people can be really ignorant. "

Now....the only way you are going to get uncontaminated water is by buyng distilled water. But guess what? Distilled water pulls minerals from your body, can make you very ill over time, and costs twice as much as regular bottled water.

So...for all you folks who only drink bottled water.....you're paying a company bookoo bucks for something that is really no better than what comes from your tap.
Go get an under-sink reverse osmosis in your kitchen and quit paying a company to sell you back the water you are already paying for.
Better yet....get better informed on your local water treatment plant. Maybe next time the city wants to sell a bond for an upgrade to the water treatment plant, you won't bitch as loud.

OK...I've had my second rant for the morning.:))

wow since 2001. that year sounds familiar, oh yeah bush 911, NEW WORLD ORDER/illuminati. depopulation, dumb down society,take away all your human rights,take away your freedom. now its 2009 look how FU*K UP things is. yall bought that crap sinker and all. you better wake up its not to late. But if you still want to keep taking that blue pill you keep on doing it sheeple, or wake up and take the red one, and get your life in order. peace out blood raw/it is what it is

Just looking through the 20 violations that occurred in my hometown since 2004 I found th the following (just to name a few). Arsenic, Barium, Cadmium, Chromium, Mercury, Nickel, Antimony, Beryllium, and Selenium.

Yeah, Sanitation!

Someone, summon Erin Brockovich!!!!

I'm so glad i can afford bottled water

www.evolutionhealthworks.com

its worse than that, the guys at the filtration plants spend most of their time ph balancing the water with other chemicals to make it neutral for consumption. Which is in essence the same thing you do to pool water.

we should be cracking down on industry. they are the source of water pollutions. or is the economy worth more than public health? funny thing is, jobs would be created in cleaning the environment up. america has this weird misconception that regulation is bad for industry, and whats bad for industry is bad for the economy. doesn't matter, noone really cares anyhow... why worry about what you can't see with your own two eyes, right?

I wonder what kind of chemicals it takes to 'clean' the water?

Have you ever heard of 'acceptable parts per million'? Or as my dad would say "Oh yeah well at least we're not as bad as Nigeria!" hahaha

The best way to drink water is to use a filter on the tap, and then to distill it. I'm a homebrewer, and when I homebrew beer or soda, I put my prefiltered water though 3 distillers. It takes them 24 hours to crank out 6 gallons. But it is .999 pure H2O. If you could see all the heavy metals, and corrosion left behind to damage the stainless steel cannisters used to boil the water,recondense it through the still, and drip it through a charcoal filter, you'd see how nasty the water quality is. Drinking organicly produced
fruit and vegetable juices processed through a Jack LaLane juicerator, you might obtain the same high quality distilled water without having to resort to distillers. At least so long as the ground isn't contaminated. God gave you only one pair of Kidneys to laste a lifetime. Treat them well. If you've ever seen people who have to go through Kidney dialysis, you'll appreciate having kidneys that are intact. Don't drink too much alchohol either if you want to keep them intact. Alchohol not only ruins your liver but your kidneys too. Your kidneys are your body's natural water filters.

yay for living in the 91 worst rated tap water, Jacksonville Florida! and drinking tap water as I type. I do have a PuR filter on my sick, yet i know it is no where near enough to clean my water. I plan on purchasing a serious filter that will get the fluoride, radium, lead, and chloride out later this month.

I'm not affiliated with this company but I use the enviro sink top and shower filter. The shower filter is great because it takes out the chlorine which also causes problems as we absorb it through our skin.

New Wave Enviro Products Inc.: Water Filters
http://www.newwaveenviro.com/filters-c-8_1.html

What are the Effects of Chlorine in the Shower?
http://www.newwaveenviro.com/new/premium-shower-fil...
scroll down

its probably still better for you then bottled water

Coming from someone who is completely ignorant about tap water issues, I'm not sure I understand the fuss.

If no one is getting sick, then does it really matter? Since this is an issue, does that imply that people are getting sick, or just that it would be wiser for government to set new water quality standards? Several places throughout the world have lower quality tap water (that is still drinkable without boiling or other purification methods) and doesn't that only strengthen your immune system?

Take action, protect and strengthen our public water!

http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/t/5915/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1988