Tap water contamination

[GLandGUY]

I was wondering about what other types of water most use? My tap water smells like chlorine and sometimes has a funny taste. Does this effect the trichomes??

[dankocalypse]

funny you post a tap water question in a Kief thread?

I'd use RO'd water whenever touching greenery

never tap

never tap for anything

not ever your tube

peace

[itsfern420]

i stopped drinking tap water once i learned about how many different chemicals are up in it.
fluoride, soooooo much fluoride

[peachesoncrack]

distilled or spring? does it matter? any water with a good ph right?

[Trichgnomes]

I drinking nothing but tap, and do use it for bubble and my glass. I should clarify though, the water that comes out of my tap is neither fluoridated nor chlorinated, for it comes from a spring near my house. Unless all of your ice is from distilled or r.o. water, it is probably mineral rich which would sort of defeat the purpose of using RO or distiller water.

[f0urtwenty]

The deal with the wire mesh filter on your kitchen faucet is it is there to catch any sediment or debris that may (will) get into the pipes and keep that mess from getting in your ice tea. Over time, this debris may build up and create a home for bacteria. So, you want to keep the filter on there to keep crunchy bits from getting in your drinking water, but you also want to take it off every once in a while and run some bleach through it.

Now, you may ask (and with good reason) how sediment and debris and bacteria can get into your drinking water distribution system. Shouldn't the distribution system be completely closed inbetween the water plant and your residential hookup? Ideally, yes. Also, ideally, I'd make about 2 more dollars and hour and the majority of Americans would accept the theory of evolution. It just ain't gonna happen.

In reality, most distribution systems develop tuberculation inside their pipes. Chiefly, this is due to the fact that the majority of water lines are made out of iron. Iron corrodes. This is a known issue and part of water treatment is controlling it. The first step is to keep your pH around a 7. If your water gets too acidic then it strips the pipes, sends that corrosion to the consumer, turns their laundry red, and we (your local water co.) gets shitty calls. We hate getting shitty calls. Also, most systems feed a blended phosphate of some sort at their high service pumps to line the pipes and keep them somewhat sealed.

A major drawback of tuberculation and corrosion is that they create crevices and crenelations where bacteria and biofilms can form. These crevices protect the bacteria from the chlorine, but any little bits that break off are usually (yes, usually) taken care of by said chlorine. This is why we feed more chlorine than the in plant demand (this is called a 'residual'). We don't always know what's out there in the system and we want to take care of it.

There is also the issue of sewer infiltration and inflow. When laying water and sewer pipes in the same trench, the sewer pipe should always be at least two feet away from the water line and also two feet below it (this is called the 2x2 rule). Again, in magic land where I actually earn a living wage and Pat Robertson is a marginalized snake handler, this would always be the case. Unfortunately, 2x2 is a relatively recent rule, leaving the vast majority of legacy water and sewer lines right beside eachother when they are buried.

The deal with this is that all water distribution systems have leaks in them. Probably dozens. Not huge ones, but tiny little pin pricks that shoot out laser beams of water. These beams of water create 'cavitation' around them, and that isn't a big deal as long as you have more than 20 psi on that line. Now, consider that you also just as many, if not more, such leaks in your sewer system. The ground around these leaks becomes saturated with doo-doo water (that's a technical term) and it mixes in the cavities around your water leaks. Again, not a big deal as long as you got plenty of pressure on your water line keeping water spraying out of those tiny leaks.

The fuck up is when you lose pressure on your water line. This could be from a break in a main (caused by freezing, some asshole with a back hoe, some asshole hits a hydrant), or massive water loss caused by down time (no electricity) or usage from firefighting. The drop in psi lets all that doo-doo water in the cavity rush through the tiny breaks and into your system. Not a good day.

The real protip here is to make sure that your municipality has a regular pipe flushing program to keep their distribution system cleaned out. I won't go into the complete ins and outs of flushing (that's a whole other post), but basically you just systematically flush your hydrants from inside your system to the outside of your system. If done right, the flushing scours the lines and removes any old water that's been sitting in dead end lines. This should be done at least once a year and twice is better. A lot of municipalities like to put off flushing because it's a pain in the ass, causes overtime (best to do it on a third shift) and generates dirty water calls from customers. And we hate getting calls.

[Hydrophilic]

Super informative post^^^
It's always interesting to hear about an industry you don't hear much about, from somebody who actually knows what they are talking about. I also lol'd at the evolution part. Off topic, but my girlfriend showed me some facebook thing (I don't have facebook) that is a group trying to get 1 million people who don't believe in evolution. I first laughed then got pissed. It will be like a giant idiot list.