Growing up in Baton Rouge I was never exposed to bottled water until I was grown. Baton Rouge tap water is some of the purest water in any municipal water system in the country. I don't even remember seeing bottled water for sale in stores except for distilled water. My grandparents lived in a small town near Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas. The water there tasted kind of funny but I didn't hate it. My grandmother always had a glass container of cold tap water in the fridge. New Orleans water has always had a horrible taste and I have been other places where the tap water is basically undrinkable. I just ran across a story on Yahoo about bottle water. It seems that about 45% of all bottled water is tap water that has been treated. Including the popular brands Aquafina and Dasani. Most of the bottle water comes from California, a state with water problems of their own http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-bottled-water-comes-california-200816657.html I keep a couple of case of bottled water around in case of a hurricane. Even though I have never lost my water after a hurricane. I keep a few bottles in the fridge just to give to anybody around who wants some water and is leaving so I don't have to look for a plastic cup for them to take with them. But I almost always drink a glass of tap water with ice cubes when I want a drink of water. The only time I ever buy a bottle of cold water is if I am away from my house and want water instead of a Coke or some juice.
The tap water in Plano smells and tastes like dirt--especially in the summer. It's undrinkable, in my opinion. My refrigerator has a water filter, however, that does a great job of making the water tasteless, so that's what I usually drink at home. I do have bottled water on hand at all times, though.
Your water probably comes from the same place Arlington gets theirs. I took a sip of water from the tap in my room at a hotel in Arlington and it was awful. Fortunately it was an extended stay hotel so I had a refrigerator with beer in it.
We use one of those plastic bins with a filter, but the water taste doesn't bother me here in Phoenix. If I drink from a bottle, it's usually from one of the many glass bottles we have. For me it's less about taste and more about convenience.
Baton Rouge gets its water from the same aquifer as Kentwood "springs", which are actually wells. It is very good water. I use a filter on my water tap to catch whatever crap it might pick up from the old pipes it flows through. I do throw a case of Kentwood water in the truck when I go on road trips. Most of the communities in the country get their water from surface reservoirs or rivers and they put so much chlorine in it to make it safe that I can't stand drinking it.
Rotate it out every six months or so. Bottled water has a shelf life. Chemicals in the plastic leach into the water.
This thread reminds me of a comment I saw elsewhere recently: Ah, the 80s when water was free and we paid for porn.
