Question:
So at least one bottled water company admitted today that they use tapwater. I forget its name, wikipedia or something, but iiuc they'veonly changed their label to say p.w.s. on the bottles, which mostpeople still won't know stands for public water source.

Someone from the water industry, maybe this company, was interviewedon the evening news, and he said that the water was processed in 7stages, including reverse osmosis, ozification, something I forget,and distillation.

Distillation is the one I don't get? First, it would cost a lot ofmoney to steam distill all the water, and steam distillation is theonly distillation that meets the def. of distillation, afaik (notcounting natural evaporation and rain). Second, it takes all the goodtasting minerals out of the water.

So what sort of distillation are they talking about? Or are theypulling our legs?

I figure this is partly on topic because you guys are always talkingabout well water and hard water and doing all kinds of things to it.

Answer: I see your point, and you make it well.

STill, this seems like so much trouble. I was happier when I thoughtthey just opened the faucet and let it fill the bottle.

I think that was the system in the office I worked in NYC where theyhad these really big bottles that went upside down in the waterdispenser. They did this because I think there was no water pipehandy. I think the bottles didn't even have a company name on them.

My ex=girlfriend has a water filter on her sink faucet. When I'mthere, I've tried to be nice to her by using the filtered water, so Iwon't seem to be scoffing at her. She says the water tastes terrible.She lives 10 miles away and uses the same water company, Baltimore,that I do, and I think the water tastes fine. So I'm going to go toher house and drink straight from the tap and see if I can taste adifference from mine. Both of our immediate n'hoods are about 30 or40 years old, but there were some houses in both places 40 yearsearlier, so I don't know much about the water mains, or if hers arelike mine.

Our water comes from 3 big reservoirs. I'm not sure what the soil ismade of or how much they keep fertilizer etc. from being used in thewatershed. There are a lot of hills and streams here so somewatersheds are pretty narrow, but I think there is farmland upstreamfrom one reservoir.