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New York City also has famously good water

Not true! NYC does not have "famously good water". I found that out when I had to change my counter-top water filter after about one year of use.

It was more than gross. Imagine having to drink that water without the benefit of a water filter. By the way, I don't think water people drink in many restaurants are filtered.




The water sources to NYC are very high quality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_water_supply_sys...

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/03/24/nyregion/how-n...

Anyway, all water filters get very funky after a year.


True, "all water filters get very funky after a year", that funkiness is an indication of the true quality of the water that reaches your house or apartment.

That's how you tell what you'd have been drinking without filtration.


You seem really bothered by this. What did you see in your filter after a year? Some tiny amount of algae? Some mineral deposits? Do you prefer your water taste like a chlorinated pool?

Wait until you find out what's in your food!


It might just be some calcium. The horror!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_water


Nope, what I saw in that filter wasn't calcium.


> Imagine having to drink that water without the benefit of a water filter.

We don't have to imagine it. Plenty of people do.

Concentrate a year's worth of tiny impurities and you'll wind up a bit of sludge, yes. You'd probably get it even with pure distilled water from dust and microbes in the air.

Chances are you're breathing a lot more nasty in from taxi exhaust and human feces from farts than you're getting from that water.


But couldn't that just be the pipes in your building? The water comes from the Catskills, and when it leaves there, at least, it's extremely clean.


The water towers on top of NYC buildings tend to not be maintained especially well:

  With their quaint barrel-like contours and weathered 
  cedar-plank sides, rooftop water towers are a constant on 
  the New York City skyline. And though they may look like 
  relics of a past age, millions of residents get their 
  drinking water from the tanks every day.

  But inside these rustic-looking vessels, there are often 
  thick layers of muddy sediment. Many have not been 
  cleaned or inspected in years. And regulations governing 
  water tanks are rarely enforced, an examination by The 
  New York Times shows.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/nyregion/inside-citys-wat... (warning: autoplay video)


That the water at the source is clean may be true, but you judge the water by its nature at the final destination, because in the final analysis, that is where the grade of quality matters to those who'll be drinking it.


"more than gross" is hardly a scientific analysis of cleanliness, though I guess in line with this article (which is why I flagged it).


Did you want me to scientifically analyse my drinking water before I can comment about it on HN?

I'm talking about the water that reaches my faucet, not the one somewhere upstate NY.




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