Graham Asks: Can I drink the Water in New York City?
April 16, 2006 07:52 AM - Lloyd Alter, Toronto
For his big move back to the big city, our Dear Leader sent in the investigative team to case the joint. One question was- can we drink the water? in New York City, the answer is a resounding yes. Very farsighted people built the New York water supply system, starting with the Croton reservoirs built between 1842 and WW1, and the Catskill system started in 1927. Altogether 1,900 square miles of land containing pristine lakes and reservoirs supply approximately 1.4 billion gallons of water each day to nearly 9 million people in New York City and surrounding counties. It is pure, clean, and unfiltered. ::EPA How does it taste? Many New Yorkers say they drink bottled water because it tastes better, but ABC's 20/20 did a blind taste test.
They offered people New York City tap water and five other bottled waters, Evian, the top-selling bottled water Aquafina, Poland Spring, Iceland Spring (which comes all the way from Iceland), and American Fare, a discount brand from Kmart, which sells for less than half the price of Evian.
"In our test of bottled waters, Kmart's American Fare — the cheapest brand — won. Big-seller Aquafina came in second.
Iceland Spring tied the ordinary tap water for third place. Fifth place went to Poland Spring, and in last place, by far, with almost half the testers saying it tasted bad, was the most expensive water — the fancy French stuff, Evian.
"It tasted like toilet water," one man said.
Evian had no comment about that review.
Bottom line, if you buy bottled water because you think it's healthier than tap, test after test shows no evidence of that. And if you buy fancy brands because you think they taste better, you're probably just buying the hype. " ::ABC
Note: While New York City may have some of the best water around, your building may compromise it with old lead pipes. Read Umbra in Grist.
pictures from Robert Klein Gallery and
via ::BldgBlog
