jackshoegazer | Whoever said water tastes like nothing?

Ever wonder what's in your tap water? Visit the National Tap Water Quality Database. You'll find out some weird, weird things.

For instance... the Maximum Contaminant Limit Goal (MCLG) for lead content is 15ppb (parts per billion). In California, the MCLG for lead is 2ppb. My hometown tap water has been tested, at average, 6.67 ppb.

Hey, not so bad.

The MCLG for arsenic is 0.02 ppb. My home tap water levels? Oh, averaging about 2.96 ppb. That's only about 148 times the contaminant limit. Don't get me started on the levels of radon, bromodichloromethane, and dibromochloromethane which have exceeded health limits.

Did you know that the health limits, the very minimum limits to not cause vast harm to the human body aren't the legal limits? Nope, the legal limits are much higher, so you can be pumping out dangerous, contaminated water and not get fined or shut down for it. That's good to know.

And a great thing about Watertown? They have won Wisconsin's "Best Tap Water" contest many years in a row. This is such a prestige that Pepsi built a bottling plant here, so it's not just Watertown residents who get this great, high quality water, but million of others throughout the midwest distribution center. Next time your suckling down a Pepsi product, check where it was bottled. It might have come from my hometown.

With unhealthy, but totally legal arsenic levels.

(x-posted to