http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/03/10/pharma.water1.ap/index.html#cnnSTCOther1

Click on this link to find out what's "brewing" in your state.

I read that yesterday....it is SO ABSOLUTELY AWFUL!!!

It makes me very glad I live in this frozen wasteland.

No one lives up hill from me.

I am glad that my state isn’t one of those that they listed. But I bet it is just a matter of time.

Major,

Unfortunately, just because it doesn't list your town or state as contaminated...doesn't mean it isn't.

If you read the entire article, it goes on to say how most places they contacted didn't respond, or didn't test for everything they thought should be tested for.

The frightening quote was "Of the 28 major metropolitan areas where tests were performed on drinking water supplies, only Albuquerque, New Mexico; Austin, Texas; and Virginia Beach, Virginia, said tests were negative."

That means that only THREE places out of 28, were safe!!!!

The article said that pretty much anyone drinking water from a river or stream was getting tainted water.

It even said that drinking water derived from water shed areas (so overland flow) as well as water from underground, was often contaminated.

The fact that underground water was contaminated shocked me.

Supposedly, the pharmaceuticals don't 'decompose' or 'disintegrate', or whatever you want to call it. And they leak out of everywhere. Not only landfills and giant waste repositories, but small one person septic systems too!

And from what I read I *DO* think that the small amounts affect us.

I think it is horrifically frightening!

There is a mountain range between me and most of the population in my state. The aquifer I get my water from is fed by glaciers in the Canadian Rockies with almost no population around it to contaminate the water. Still, as I said before, I bet it is just a matter of time.

Do I install
a reverse osmosis contraption
and a charcoal filter or
..
pass my water thru a solar "water still" ??
.
Thanks for the article.

Reverse Os is best. This is why I dont watch the news much. Media hype is doin everything they can to scare us into hysteria. We are all gonna live till we die, and die of something we must. At some point in our lives we are all gonna have something terminal. Now we can live our lives to the fullest till that day comes, or wonder the earth for a lifetime worrying about what the hell is gonna kill us. It is appointed to all men (and women) to die. If its not the water, its the radio waves in the air, if it not the radio waves, its the red die in hot dog weenies. If its not the red die, its the radiation of our hair dryers. WHO GIVES A RATS ARSE...turn off the tv and go plant something, learn to crochet, make a quilt, build a model airplane, weave a rug, join a community help program, Quit heaving on everything you hear on the news. News media is always BAD NEWS, hardly ever anything uplifting and happy. They keep it that way on purpose to keep us opressed and worried. Which causes more stress and depression and sells more pharmaceuticals.

we live in a small town and have radium, ecoli, murcury, and thats just the ones i remember off the top of my head, is a very large list

Local news told us today that our water was safe, it comes from a lake nearby us. I hope it is, we do filter our water, but apparently drugs don't filter out, that's a scarey thought, what the heck?

See this thread for related info:
http://forums.organicgardening.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2341078301/m/9441000663

I had just about trained my wife to stop buying bottled water and refilling a Nalgene bottle instead, when this story hit the news. And I guess the Nalgene bottles (I've had the same one for 15 years) off gas some horrible poison too.

Middle of last week we got a notice from the town that our municipal water is not safe for drinking until further notice, and they don't just mean they got a bad reading of some trace chemical, apparently it's a major contamination of the whole water system.

They have set up a water distribution station at the fire house and we go up every couple of days to fill our big water jug. It's like a scene out of the dark ages, everyone gathered at the pump in the town square to get water.

And the refrigerator is full of those dang dollar-a-bottle bottled water again.

So much for keeping the plastic out of the waste stream. I expect that it will be years before I get the family to give up sucking on the friggin plastic bottles now.

And we have a big salmonella out break too...20 cases reported in three days, which is a lot for a community of around 4000....

From where I sit, it's the beginning of the dark ages

that is awful!

I hope they find the source of the salmonella soon!


Of course, we have a town well here....a fair number of people don't have any water, or don't have drinkable water at home. But it is NOT the entire town going to the town well....

We got home tonight to find that our town water is fine, testing negative for all contaminants, and probably was all along. They were exercising an abundance of caution.

But before we left work, we learned that the municipal water in the "big city" is undrinkable. Apparently it is the source of the salmonella, and according to the local paper, this is a positive identification by the department of health.

Of course the kids have been drinking big city water all week at day care. My kids, who are pretty commonly known to dig up carrots and eat them right out of the garden, dirt, worms and all, have pretty tough tummies, but we will be pretty nervous for the next few days.

i couldnt imagine if an old folks home came up with viagra in the drinkin water, yikes, thats a scary thought

I remember when we lived in Spain in the early seventies, we got all our drinking water from a village pump conected to a spring in the mountains. The regular local supply was taken just downstream from where the sewage went in. I remember walking along the stream and seeing unmentionable stuff bobbing along in the water. And, of course, every time I went to the pump, the elevator would go out in our building. Water is really heavy.