Florida among 10 worst states for tap water

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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/state/epaper/2009/09/22/0922water.html


Are you drinking dirty water? Florida among 10 worst states for tap water


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Florida's dirtiest water: Florida ranks among the top 10 dirtiest states, according to AOLHealth.com. The website reports that approximately 17 million Floridians have been exposed to bad tap water containing more than 100 contaminants. More than 9 million Floridians, for example, may have been in contact with barium runoff from mines. For some perspective, approximately 25,000 of those 9 million people were exposed to amounts of barium considered to be unsafe. Additionally, about 11 million state residents may have drunk water with radium-26, found around natural uranium deposits, with more than 11,000 of those coming into contact with high levels.

California, Wisconsin and Ohio also join the list of states with dirty water. Check out AOL's photo gallery with the 10 worst states.

Unfortunately, we can't simply turn to bottled water, as many manufacturers do not fully report where they obtain the water, nor what is in it.
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seems like the only thing Florida is good at is rigging elections

[LLStarks]

1. Florida tap water tastes horrible. nt

[glowing]

2. I agree. We don't drink it. It tastes bad and smells bad.

[BolivarianHero]

3. Is anybody that surprised?

Jeb Bush was too busy rigging elections; Charlie Crist is too busy praying away hurricanes, covering for Jeb's corruption, and hiding in the closet.

[Warpy]

4. Florida tap water always gave me the runs

I always had to live on soda bottled out of state when I was visiting my parents.

And yes, it tasted terrible.

[SPedigrees]

5. Probably quality depends on specific location within Florida.

Tap water tastes fine to me in the Tampa area.

[csziggy]

6. Water quality varies wildly from place to place in Florida

In Tampa, you get sulphur water (Sulphur Springs is now a part of Tampa), in South Florida there is salt water intrusion, and in the middle of the state - in the infamously red Polk County - you get all kinds of industrial contamination. My parents live in Bartow and for many years the city water was so bad we avoided visiting for more than a day since showers left us smelling worse than we started and we had to use bottled water for everything. The city finally upgraded their treatment plants and now the water is better, but is still pretty bad.

Bartow was the center for the phosphate, citrus, and cattle industries with all the crap that was used in all of them just dumped into the water tables damaged by the strip mining and over pumping to support agriculture. I can remember when many people down there used ground water wells rather than drilling deep enough to get into the aquifer. The ground water wells became contaminated with anything that was on the ground surface, since there was only a thin layer of sand for the stuff to percolate through. In the 60s people had to drill new, deep wells to get water that they could use as the ground water got so bad and as the ground water tables dropped to very low levels.

Up here in Tallahassee, the city water is better though the city is having problems with their wells during drought years. Our well water is still decent but I am not sure it is as good as it used to be.

[appamado amata padam]

7. Which are the rest of the 10 states?

Tried to find, but no luck yet.

[unpossibles]

8. I would agree with this

Florida water largely tastes about how it smells: awful!

[RebelOne]

9. I could have told the paper that.

When I lived in South Florida, there was so much rust in the water, that I had to buy a special rust-removing cleanser to scrub the toilet and sinks.

[Heddi]

10. I live in Tampa/St Pete. We have sand in our tap water

Just moved here from Seattle in June (whywhywhywhy). Put a britta filter on the tap because it tasted like junk and the filter got clogged adn stopped working within a month...way too soon, and it wasn't even halfway "gone" according to the little filter use meter on it.

So I unscrewed the device from the faucet and OMG! There was SAND, like beach sand, clogging up the part that screws onto the tap.

I can't even use a shower head (how's that for ecology!?) because within 3 days the shower head gets clogged with sand and particles to the point that I can't just bang the sand out and clean it out...it makes it INOPERATIVE.

it's crazy. I can't believe that even for a week I drank the stuf unfiltered :(

[SPedigrees]

11. You don't really want to use a showerhead. They are bacteria incubators.

I immerse my showerheads every couple weeks in clorox.

[Heddi]

12. Well my water bill doesn't like me having water just pour from the spout

bacteria vs sky high water bills? I'll take the bacteria, especially since my household is like most people's and I, yanno, CLEAN the shower head on a regular basis

[glowing]

17. I hate it here too. Been stuck sinc 02. You either love Florida or Hate Florida;

there is no in between. It could have been nice.. but it has absolutely no planning, traffic is insane for no reason, and half the people are dipstick republicans. My neighbor is always pulling in the yard listening to Rush Fatballs.. I have an Obama sticker on my car.. I'm super loud about my opinions.. I figure if he's going to blast asshole, I'm going to talk really loudly to my mom. Idiot.

[recoveringrepublican]

19. I live in N Pinellas, and our water tastes ok. No sand. nt

[BlooInBloo]

13. A friend of mine lives in Vegas, and says there's "chunks" in their water.

[bullwinkle428]

14. That's okay...the rich can afford to bathe in Evian or Fiji bottled water!

Screw you, worthless peons!!!

:sarcasm:

[sakabatou]

15. The tap water in my part of CA

tastes great. No problems with it.

[aikoaiko]

16. woohoo, GA is not listed in the top ten. We're finally not the worst at something.

whoo hoo.

[Simon Laman]

18. fresh water

While on the subject of water, those of you in the UK might be interested in our debate:



Earthwatch Debate: From Tsunami to Drought



Thursday 19th November, 7.00pm – 9.00pm at the Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR



Chaired by award winning broadcaster Andrea Catherwood.





Three experts will be joined by an enterprising member of the public to present solutions to the looming crisis of access to water for drinking and sanitation. Our speakers will then be interrogated by a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style panel before you, the audience, cast the deciding vote.



Please see: http://www.earthwatch.org/europe/get_involved/events09/debate09/



Ticket only - free to students and current Earthwatch donors; otherwise a donation will be requested on the door.



For tickets and/or more information contact our Events Department on [phone]; [email protected]

[slackmaster]

20. My home RO unit makes decent water for drinking and cooking

The biggest problem with the tap water in San Diego is hardness.