M5.4 Blog about your Consumer Confidence Reports (CCR) and water quality

• What is the source of your drinking water? Where does your water ORIGINATE?  (It is treated at a water treatment plant, but what watershed or aquifer is the sources of the water?)

I tried looking for my source of water on the CCR from the EPA page but no information was available. I do know the water source from San Francisco comes from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir which is situated on the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park. 85% of the water comes from the Sierra Nevada snowmelt. 

• What chemicals were found in your water that were higher than expected?

Chemicals were found at where they should be. Hetch Hetchy is known to have some of the cleanest water in the country. 

• What chemicals did you NOT expect to find in your water?

Lead was found in the water. Not at high quantities but none the less it is there. 

• Are there associated health risks with the chemicals found in your water?  (sources for this last question include the EPA, CDC, ATSDR and the National Library of Medicine's ToxNet program.

Associated risk could be that of over consumption of fluoride, exposure to microbes and organic chemical compounds. 

• Where does your water come from? The source! Track it from the source to your tap.

My water comes from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. Where it locally pours into would be Crystal Springs reservoir, Polarcitos reservoir or San Andreas reservoir which close to San Francisco.  

• What did you discover about your water quality?

I discovered that the water quality is some of the cleanest in the country. 

• Do you use a filter for your water?

No, I drink tap water from the sink. 

• What are you trying to filter out?

I do not filter out my water; although my mother does want to invest in a system that filters water.  

• Do you drink bottled water?   How does this square with what you learned when you watched the Story of Bottled Water (see next exercise)?

I do drink bottled water. My mother buys water bottles from Costco so I tend to use them. I have invested on a reusable water bottle. I bought a hydro-flask and use that more on a daily basis. When I am lazy to wash it I will drink out of a water bottle. What I learned from the video about bottled water was how the tons and tons of water bottles that pile up in one year can circle the world 5 times! That is pretty amazing to hear but scary to realize. The analogy on using the crystal light example was interesting. Knowing they have a logo with a river and mountain on it, the narrator mentions how they should replace the mountain with a mountain of water bottles to demonstrate the harm we are doing to the environment by using so many water bottles.