Here is a great database for you to find out the possible contaminants in your tap water.  It was put together by the Environmental Working Group and can tell you, based on your city the possible problems with your tap water.  It's called the National Tap Water Quality Database.  This data was collected for 42 states over a period of 2 1/2 years.  Curiously, there were 140 different chemicals found in many drinking water supplies that have no enforceable safety limits.  As we had discussed a few months ago about the contamination of pharmaceuticals in our nation's tap water one starts to think more critically about the amount of unknown things in that wonderfully clear glass of water you are having with your dinner. 

I, for one would love to think that I am very conscientious about the water I drink and the containers I put the water in.  But that just covers what I drink at home and at work.  What about all those times when I go out for dinner and don't order bottled water or the bottled water the restaurant or cafe are offering has no known information on purity.  One call I had made to Arrowhead Water (a very popular brand of bottled water in California) a few years ago on how they tested and ensured purity in their water virtually confused the individual on the other end of the phone.  Ultimately their response was that they did a visual test and if the water did not look cloudy they continued to bottle it.  Well, that was the last time I had Arrowhead water.  There is no guarantee that just because you are bottling underground spring water that the spring has not been contaminated with things such as jet fuel, pesticides and herbicides just like our tap water. 

Many underground springs are fed by lakes and rivers that have been contaminated by runoff from agriculture, mining or other manufacturing processes.  The drinking water I use is Alhambra Crystal Fresh because they filter and process the water 7 different ways before bottling it.  Additionally, they test the water for a whole host of contaminants every half hour and have a third party test it as well.  The original source of the water is well water so there is no contamination of chloramine (which is really difficult to filter out of the water) or chlorine. I know there are lists of better bottled water choices so I'll try to get back to you on that in a future post.