In the small town where my Dad lives, we regularly get "Boil Water" notices and form letters about our water not meeting safe standards for cholera (I think) for the PREVIOUS month, no action necessary on our part. Sometimes the water is brown, sometimes it stinks, sometimes it contains too much lime. People have been trying to get something done about it for 20 years to no avail and this will probably never change, it's politics as usual. So for safe drinking water, we have had to buy it at appx $1.00 per gallon. In addition, after buying safe drinking water, we are left with all of the jugs that the water came in. There is a place in the next town (their water is as bad as ours) that has a "purified" water and ice outdoors machine. You bring your own jugs & it's 25 cents a gallon or $1 for a 5 gallon jug, so it's way cheaper than WM's $1 per gallon, but the other day at Dirt Cheap I got an electric kettle that holds 1.7 litres of water and it takes about 5 minutes to boil appx one half gallon of water. It cost $1.50 and works perfectly, brand new. So, according to the best of my attempt at figuring the electrical useage, it costs 1.41 cents per half gallon, or less than 3 cents a gallon, to have boiled water but that's still cheaper than propane. I know you have to boil it for a full minute at a rolling boil for safety, so when it automatically cuts off, I hit the start button again and it keeps boiling for long enough to meet the one minute necessary. My question is: What does everyone else do that does not have good water?
We don't get boil orders here but the city water tastes awful and has a lot of sediment and nitrogen (ie fertlizer) in it. DH got a filter a few years ago. Attaches under the sink. It cost under $100, and it has filters that we replace once or twice a year. You can pour about a gallon of water before it needs to pause and filter more.
We don't get boil orders here but the city water tastes awful and has a lot of sediment and nitrogen (ie fertlizer) in it. DH got a filter a few years ago. Attaches under the sink. It cost under $100, and it has filters that we replace once or twice a year. You can pour about a gallon of water before it needs to pause and filter more. Boiling it is certainly cheaper.
We had our well water tested last year, and did a nitrogen test. We were safe, thank goodness. But there is a worked farm field on higher elevation which drains toward our water supply, then yes we need to be proactive.
We have a reverse osmosis filter too. Those things are awesome. I took some over to my friend's fish. The tank had gotten low and every time they had left water out, their two year old got into it and dumped it.
Side note: Her two year old isn't a bad child. He is a monkey child and uses chairs to climb onto counters and everywhere else. And, he is super fast. You run to the bathroom and **poof** he has created some sort of mess. My Q was like that when he was tiny. I just look at her when she is exasperated and tell her that at least he isn't twins.
I don't think so on the raintank & I didn't know about the nitrogen, so I'm gonna have to have that checked out, but I've got to find out where to have it checked. About how much does it cost to have your water analyzed?
You should be able to get the annual city water report for free from your utility company. After that I would get a phone book and let your fingers do the walking.
is there a spring in your area, if this would be an option? Our water is bad but not unsafe. We have a salt system but my dh doesn't drink the water. we get spring water.You ready have the jugs.
There's not a spring in the close vicinity, the closest is about 20 miles out of the way. I'll just keep doing the $.25 a gallon thing instead of just boiling it until I get around to getting the water analyzed. Thanks to all.
Back a few years ago we was getting our water from the city and we didn't have any water pressure...We finially had to file with the EPA and have it tested We should have been under a boil order all the time according to them Took us 3 years to get something done..They are required 2 give you a report of your water safety every year...
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