[kacy]

I grew up in a poor town that sourced water from the Cape Fear river. There were two major factories in our immediate area: one that made paper and the other made industrial chemicals. The Dupont plant mentioned in the article was 10 miles upstream from where we were. We knew it was better to buy bottled water than to drink what came through the pipes. Grateful for the scientists and journalists for their work exposing all of this.

[gwbas1c]

Just remember: When you buy bottled water, you don't really know where it comes from, and what contaminants are in it.

Don't assume that bottled water is any safer (or more dangerous) than your tap. After all, when you look at the fine print of cheaper bottled waters, you'll often see something like "Sourced from the XXX municipal water supply."

I also remember staying at the Poland Springs resort and observing that they had septic tanks a 10 minute walk away from the "shrine" to the original "Poland Spring," and finding trash in the woods that had been there for years.

[happytiger]

Good point. What happened to feduciary-style responsibilities for executives in their duties to customers?

Let me give you the data to back it up:

https://www.wpr.org/dnr-says-bottled-water-companies-arent-r....

One 2021 study found PFAS in 39 out of 101 bottled water products that ranged in levels from almost zero to nearly 19 parts per trillion. David Strifling is director of the Water Law and Policy Initiative at Marquette University Law School. He said there’s no general assurance that bottled water is safer than tap water.

[ethanbond]

Or even to their non-customer stakeholders!

The meme that corporations exist exclusively for the benefit of shareholders is a very recent, very extreme phenomenon, yielding exactly the sort of results you would expect. Externalizing costs, especially in ways that are dispersed enough not to be addressable by any particular affected party, is the whole point of the modern enterprise. It wasn’t always this way and it need not be this way in the future.

[inemesitaffia]

The fascinating thing is there PFAS free water

[sebmellen]

I don’t see why this is conceptually hard to achieve with reverse osmosis.

[red-iron-pine]

conceptually, not hard. the issue is scale and transport.

[cyanydeez]

Most municipal water supplies are safer than the piping systems or the private wells.

In sheer probability, your 'dont do X' is really a minority outlier and doesn't help anyone.

[oooyay]

> Most municipal water supplies are safer than the piping systems or the private wells.

I used to work in municipal water software and I don't think this statement can be said broadly. It helps to segregate discussion of water into segments:

- Water extraction and storage health

- Water mainline delivery health

- Water lateral/service line health

Extraction and storage are usually pretty good across the board. Mainline can vary and lateral/service line varies highly in quality.

Mainline health usually comes down to maintaining pressure and flow, especially at the end of a service area. In some cities you'll see them dump water from the hydrant, other cities don't have such good hygiene (and stagnant water is dangerous). Service lines have historically been considered on the owner to deal with; there's now federal funding to fight things line lead service lines (of which there are still huge amounts). Service lines do impact overall water health though, as not every water meter or mainline connection has backflow prevention.

[aziaziazi]

I find your comment offensive: “don’t SUPPOSE x” is very different of “dont DO x” as it’s just a paraphrase of “x is a misconception”.

Furthermore he may be a minority (or not, all we know is you both have a different social circle) but that just make him someone with originals idea so let’s listen instead of blaming (please).

[shutupnerd0000]

What in the world are you talking about?

[aziaziazi]

I might have misunderstood his comment (not english native) and present my apologies if i did.

However my understanding is that proclaiming someone opinion is a “minority outlier” without any more info or source is rude and close minded. Also, how do you understand “minority” in his comment?

It’s like saying “I have a different opinion of yours and I think your opinion is not popular here so shut up please.” By the reactions, his post brought interest and more ideas from others so it’s a good think he didn’t auto-censored.

[emodendroket]

Sure. But if you know for a fact that your tap water is contaminated it’s logical to buy water from elsewhere. Maybe look for ones that have been filtered with RO.

[frandroid]

Okay but if I was living downstream from these plants, I'd still take my chances on bottled water that's coming from elsewhere. :P

[robk]

Still makes me uncomfortable even using the shower when I'm down in Shallotte for the same reason!