Your best water source: Tap or bottled?.
Water-related subjects such as weather, floods, drought or contamination are often featured on the news promoted to the public; the situation in Flint, Michigan is a case in point.
These topics can be great concern throughout the United States and the world and significantly affect our daily lives; thus, like every subject, information and understanding are essential… The Marshall Utilities recently included a pamphlet in its monthly greeting to customers entitled “Consumer Confidence Report.” It contains the results of monitoring parameters performed on its drinking water during the last year.
The report, although somewhat detailed, initiates thought and confidence and should be reviewed by all of us.
It is estimated that bottle water costs about $3.79 per gallon, which is 2,000 times the cost of tap water and 100 times the cost of home-filtered water…and yet we buy it!
Of course, some consumers believe that bottle water is better.
Compared to some tap water, it is more (or less) tasty, and its use, especially in children, requires supplemental fluoride medication to prevent dental diseases.
However, it is a well-known fact that the dangers in drinking water are often from the contaminants that you cannot taste…and the ones that are removed by municipal purification systems.
It is often an unappreciated fact that the water contained in that bottle with the attractive label depicting a mountain stream, a flowing spring, or glacial ice often contains water from a municipal source and marketed by a food industry giant.
A common recommendation has been eight glasses of water each day.

Pipeline Drilling Creating Issues With Well Water In Chester County.
WEST WHITELAND, Pa. (CBS)–Some residents in Chester County are dealing with brown water flowing into their homes, and some have lost their well water completely.
They blame a pipeline Sunoco is digging beneath their properties.
“They should have contacted us two weeks ago when they knew they poked a hole in the well.” Mano said after neighbors began complaining earlier this week, Sunoco began offering bottled water and hotel rooms.
She said Sunoco is being encouraged to pay to hook up everyone to city water following this situation.
Some like Debbie Cindric, who spent a night in a hotel room, defended the company.
Mano is sending his well water out for private testing because he feels Sunoco is not being upfront about the situation.
A spokesman for Sunoco said in a statement that the company is investigating and testing local well water: “Sunoco Pipeline is working with a number of residents in the Exton (Chester County) area to resolve private water well water issues that appear to be related to nearby construction on the Mariner East 2 pipeline.
Approximately 12 households on Township Line Road and Valley View Drive, mostly in West Whiteland Township but also in Uwchlan Township, reported either losing water pressure or experiencing cloudy water beginning on Monday.
Crews have been working on a horizontal directional drill between West Whiteland and Uwchlan as part of the pipeline construction.

Rather, East, whose district encompasses the small towns of Avenal and Kettleman City on the San Joaquin Valley’s west side, is worried about the safety of the water that the 2,700 students in his school district are being given to drink.
But in the San Joaquin Valley and other rural regions of California, residents either rely on private wells or small districts that lack the funds and infrastructure to treat contaminated drinking water.
In 2008 the Environmental Protection Agency cited Arvin Community Services District, which provides drinking water for the city and schools, for exceeding the maximum contaminant level for arsenic.
While the water district looked for new sources of clean water for the community, the school districts worked with the state and local non-profits to find an interim solution—point-of-use filters that can be hooked up to water sources like drinking fountains or sinks to remove contaminants such as arsenic and lead.
Dave Wallis, the technical services program manager at RCAC, says the group has helped install more than 170 filters in the Arvin area since 2015, including in six schools in three local school districts that serve nearly 6,000 students.
But safe water at schools is only part of the issue for kids in Arvin.
Since then, student attendance in Arvin’s schools has gone up, McClean says, and she believes annual physical fitness test results for students have also improved as fewer students have been drinking only sodas and more have begun drinking water on a regular basis.
For years, locals in Avenal have shied away from tap water—even before they knew about unsafe levels of disinfectant byproducts—bemoaning its taste and its rusty appearance, and digging into what little money they had to buy five-gallon jugs of bottled water, according to East.
Although food in Avenal schools is still cooked in the cafeteria with bottled water, over the past year, using grant money provided by a local agricultural produce company—the Wonderful Company—schools have installed point-of-use water fountains.
Despite all the investments in safe water systems, he prefers the taste of bottled water, and he still fears the contaminants in local tap water.

Boil water notice issued for Copper Ridge subdivision in New Braunfels.
NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas – Residents of the Copper Ridge subdivision in New Braunfels should boil their water before drinking it, using it to wash their hands and face or brushing their teeth, the city announced Friday.
The city said the notice was issued to due to “excessive irrigation, resulting in a critical drop in water pressure.” They said children, seniors, and people with weakened immune systems are particularly vulnerable to harmful bacteria, but that all New Braunfels Utilities public water system customers should boil their water.
Water should be brought to a “vigorous boil and then boiled for two minutes,” the city said.
The city said they will notify customers when the water is safe to drink.
For the next 72 hours, use of irrigation systems also is prohibited in the Copper Ridge subdivision, the city said.
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VERIFY: Is it safe to drink bottled water left in hot cars?.
Grabbing a bottle of water as you head out of the door is something many of us do.
"Everyone that has told me that before, they say plastic sits in the heat for so long that it can let go of chemicals," Swasta said.
She is not alone in her thinking, so we set out to verify if bottled water left in the heat is dangerous to drink.
He said bottled water is one of the most consumed beverages in the United States, citing a 2014 study by the University of Florida.
"They left bottles of water at 158 degrees Fahrenheit for several weeks,” Williams said.
“Out of 20 brands we looked at, only one in 20 had trace amounts of BPA."
"If you left it in a car for weeks at a time, then there’s a small chance that some chemicals like BPA could leach into the water, but it’s a very small probability," Williams said.
The larger risk comes when people drink from a bottle, leave it in a hot car and then drink it again, Williams said.
Bacteria introduced from your mouth has a chance to grow, and then you may have a serious health issue on your hands.

Hundreds of Bewdley homes without water for 48 hours.
Up to 800 homes and businesses in Worcestershire have been without a water supply for 48 hours.
Residents described having no water in the hot weather as "horrendous" and criticised communications from the supplier.
A burst pipe into a storage tank in the area led to water supplies running out.
Severn Trent Water said 9,600 litres of water have been delivered to 800 properties in the area overnight and are confident the problem is fixed.
One resident, Theresa Elliot, said she noticed her water pressure dropping on Tuesday evening.
"You can’t wash your hair, you can’t have a shower, you can’t put the washing machine on.
It’s all these things you take for granted," she said.
James Baker from Rock said: "It’s been quite warm and muggy.
One of the kids had their prom last night and they weren’t able to have a shower so they weren’t happy.

VERIFY: Is it dangerous to drink bottled water that’s been sitting in a hot car?.
Grabbing a bottle of water as you head out of the door is something many of us do.
Sometimes you never drink it and it could end up just being left in the car.
"Everyone that has told me that before, they say plastic sits in the heat for so long that it can let go of chemicals," Swasta said.
She is not alone in her thinking so we set out to verify if bottled water left in the heat is dangerous to drink.
We turned to Dr. Lance Williams, Professor of Biology at the University of Texas at Tyler.
He said bottled water is one of the most consumed beverages in the United States.
"They left bottles of water at 158 degrees Fahrenheit for several weeks,” Williams said.
BPA is a chemical is often used to make certain plastics and according to the Mayo Clinic it is not harmful in small doses.
That bacteria has a chance to grow, and then you may have a serious health issue on your hands.

City of Atlanta issues boil water advisory.
ATLANTA – City officials have issued a boil water advisory for parts of downtown Atlanta and South Fulton County.
Areas east to Moreland Avenue and west of downtown may also experience a loss of water pressure.
Atlanta Watershed Management said residents in these areas should boil water before using it to cook, drink, or brush teeth.
Infants, the elderly and those with immune deficiencies especially heed this warning.
BOIL WATER ADVISORY: affected areas listed below.
Please RT and pass along.
The centers are not allowing campers to play outside today to deter any water fountain usage.
The watershed department said the breaks are not related to the boil water advisory.
Although the city said the issue was resolved within 40 minutes, the boil water advisory will stand for now.

Showering With This Filter Is Like Washing in Evian.
A big gossip story in the early 1990s was that Kim Basinger would only wash her hair with Evian, and I remember rolling my 15-year-old eyes at such a Hollywood extravagance, but all these years later, the joke’s on me: I’m currently washing my own hair with what is basically bottled water, and it turns out that Kim was right.
For the better part of a year, my hair had been consistently dull and drab and sticky and gross.
I did everything I could to solve the problem — I switched shampoos, used less of it, used none of it, but my hair was still totally wretched.
Ten months after giving up and accepting my fate, I helped my goddaughter put together her fourth-grade science project (all about the school’s water supply), and it hit me: It probably wasn’t the shampoo that was ruining my hair — it had to be the water.
City water supplies all have additives in order to kill bacteria and other microorganisms, making the water safe to drink — but those same additives (namely liquefied chlorine), can also cause your shampoo to never lather up fully or rinse all the way out.
It uses a two-step filtration system (made from a combo of copper, zinc, and coconut-shell carbon) to stamp out chlorine and other additives, resulting in water that is somehow softer and less drying to your hair, skin, and nails.
Thanks to the Aquasana, my hair now looks just as spectacular every day as it did during the week I spent washing it with bottled water.
You wouldn’t think that a $60 piece of plastic could perform such a feat, but I can feel — and even taste — the difference.
You know how you can still somewhat taste the water you’re showering with (like using an outdoor shower and noticing the saltwater)?

Salvation Army cooling centers open through Friday.
"Donations of bottled water is a MAJOR need for metro cooling center operations," The Salvation Army press release states.
Omaha bottled water donations can be brought to the Emergency Disaster Services building at 10629 Burt Circle 9 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays.
Council Bluffs bottled water donations can be dropped off at the Council Bluffs Corps, 715 N. 16th St., 9 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays.
Cooling center hours vary by site: Burrows Center lobby at 6101 NW Radial Highway will be open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. today-Friday.
Call 402-898-6090 for more information about this site.
Call 402-451-4048 for more information about this site.
Call 402-451-4048 for more information about this site.
Council Bluffs Corps at 715 N. 16th St. will be open 9 a.m.-noon and 1-3 p.m. today-Friday.
Call 712-328-2088 for more information about this site.