Potable water???

[formerFR]

simple: there will always be those who 'bristle' at the thought of EVER drinking any water other than from a 'water bottle'(as though they really 'know' where that water came from!), and those others of us who grew up jumping in swimming holes, drinking water from where ever we could find it, and have never used a water filter just for drinking purposes.
'Non Potable' at campgrounds is simply a way to keep those who might otherwise use the same 'hose' to drink from that was used to potentially 'flush out' someone's black tank, or has been laying on the ground near the sewer outlet. It is simply caution to contamination possibilities within the HOSE, not the water supply.
When you see a 'potable' water spigot nearby, I can assure you that it's from the exact same water source - no one is going to build a 'different' water supply JUST for the dump station. Other than the hose that's attached to it, it's the exact same water.

[DreiHunde]

Originally Posted by formerFR

simple: there will always be those who 'bristle' at the thought of EVER drinking any water other than from a 'water bottle'(as though they really 'know' where that water came from!), and those others of us who grew up jumping in swimming holes, drinking water from where ever we could find it, and have never used a water filter just for drinking purposes.
'Non Potable' at campgrounds is simply a way to keep those who might otherwise use the same 'hose' to drink from that was used to potentially 'flush out' someone's black tank, or has been laying on the ground near the sewer outlet. It is simply caution to contamination possibilities within the HOSE, not the water supply.
When you see a 'potable' water spigot nearby, I can assure you that it's from the exact same water source - no one is going to build a 'different' water supply JUST for the dump station. Other than the hose that's attached to it, it's the exact same water.

X2

[youroo]

I really don't understand why they use the word "Non Potable Water" in the first place! There are Lots of people young and old who have No ldea what that means as attested on here! They would have better results if they put "DANGER above a skull and crossbones " with a few skeletons laid about! That's how they marked "Bad Waterholes" out West! I watched Cowboy Movies and Roy Rodgers was Truthful! Youroo! !

[Kaadk]

Originally Posted by itat

Campgrounds likely won’t have more than one water source. The supply line to the non-potable hose at the dump station will have a backflow preventer on it to protect the source water. The contamination comes from the nozzle end and how people use that hose.

Yes, they usually have only one source, but sometimes that source is from a local spring or well on premises. It is entirely possible for the the 'potable' water to have run through their filtration/treatment system, and the non-potable to have not run through any kind of treatment and be direct pump from the well.

The likelihood of one or the other will be defined by the layout of the dump station. If it's like most of our provincial parks, where there's a 'potable' source 30' from the 'non-potable' dump station on the same driveway, yeah, probably the same treated source. If it's like the campground my parent's seasonal is at, where the only thing near the dump station is the 'non-potable' and your 'potable' supply is somewhere completely else, then it's possible the 'non-potable' is un-treated.

[NJKris]

Mark, many garden hoses are constructed of plastics the are not drinking water safe. They either contain enough lead, BPA, phthalate or other unsafe elements/compounds that can enter the water stream, particularly when the water is left in the hose, even more so when heat is introduced (sitting in sun). The lead comes primarily from the alloy fittings, that have no regulation on lead content because they aren't made from drinking from. An additional plus is a drinking water hose usually doesn't transmit plastic-y odors/flavors.

[Fluffywhitedogs]

My new garage hose is drinking water safe, but I used to fill with one that wasn’t. Just run the water for a while so that nothing is sitting in contact with the hose for long and I doubt it’s any worse that other containers we may drink out of...

[FOURWHL]

I had no idea water was on the same level as tire pressure and oil

[Kaadk]

Originally Posted by FOURWHL

I had no idea water was on the same level as tire pressure and oil

It's packing up for the winter season.... we're bored. Just wait till late Feb/March when the winter stir-crazies set in and everyone's itching to get back out.

[Delco Bobby]

This is good and informative thread. Thanks to all the contributors and the OP.

And no nasty comments about Dynamax or BC.

[Cypressloser]

Originally Posted by wabakami

A good post NJKhris.

The two largest bottlers of water in North America are Pepsi and Coke, their water source at most if not all of their bottling plants is the local municipal water supply.


Over 40 billion plastic water bottles are thrown away each year
2 to 6 litres of water are required to make one 1 litre plastic bottle (depending on the plant)
In North America it takes 1.47 litres of water to produce one litre finished product (markably better than the rest of the world)

Other drinks' water usage per one litre finished product;

Pop (soda) 2L
Beer 4L
Wine 4.75L
Spirits 33L

The majority of those plastic drink bottles end up in landfills or the worlds oceans (most coastal cities dump their garbage out in the ocean).

We water operators wonder why people just don't buy a Brita and filter your own instead of spending almost as much on water as you do gasoline!



Geoff
.

Two thumbs up for your post!
Unfortunately, politicians are debating the ban of plastic drinking straws and shopping bags while consuming bottled water. Common sense seems to be not very common.

[Iwritecode]

Originally Posted by wabakami

A good post NJKhris.

The two largest bottlers of water in North America are Pepsi and Coke, their water source at most if not all of their bottling plants is the local municipal water supply.


Over 40 billion plastic water bottles are thrown away each year
2 to 6 litres of water are required to make one 1 litre plastic bottle (depending on the plant)
In North America it takes 1.47 litres of water to produce one litre finished product (markably better than the rest of the world)

Other drinks' water usage per one litre finished product;

Pop (soda) 2L
Beer 4L
Wine 4.75L
Spirits 33L

The majority of those plastic drink bottles end up in landfills or the worlds oceans (most coastal cities dump their garbage out in the ocean).

We water operators wonder why people just don't buy a Brita and filter your own instead of spending almost as much on water as you do gasoline!



Geoff
.

Doing the math, if I buy a 35-pack of bottles at wal-mart, I'm spending just over $1/gallon. That's a whole lot less than I pay for gas.

Plus, the bottles are much, much more convenient for traveling. When camping, I always know I can open the fridge and find a nice cold bottle. We do have a filtered pitcher of water at home but our family is notorious for forgetting to fill it up. Also you can only get 2 or 3 glasses out of it before you have to fill it up again and wait for the water to get cold.

The bottles can also be recycled.

[NJKris]

But nobody's buying recycled plastics anymore. My waste hauler just tacked on an additional fee for recyclables, because China refuses to buy them anymore. It will be soon cheaper to just dump them in the ocean, like they used to.

[Iwritecode]

Originally Posted by NJKris

But nobody's buying recycled plastics anymore. My waste hauler just tacked on an additional fee for recyclables, because China refuses to buy them anymore. It will be soon cheaper to just dump them in the ocean, like they used to.

Our town just started a brand new recycling program a few weeks ago. They delivered these giant brown containers for recycling. They also gave us new matching garbage cans. The only difference between the 2 is that the recycling containers have yellow lids and are slightly smaller.

They look sort of like this:



They essentially replace the little tubs that hardly anyone ever used.

[NJKris]

Not saying your hauler isn't picking them up, but....https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/c...ic-papers.html

I bought a couple big Reliance brand 10g water vessels for camping. I'm no tree hugger, but I use these to refill the disposable bottles several times, and keep the bottles in the fridge or cooler. I fill from the tap. Have good well water at home.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by Iwritecode

The bottles can also be recycled.

The problem is that people are NOT recycling them. They're tossing them on the side of the road or street.

[itat]

Originally Posted by Fluffywhitedogs

One of the parks I was at actually had a sign up stating that the water was not considered potable because the spigot wasn’t far enough away from the sewage dump to pass regulations.
No doubt, the spigot 10 feet away used the same source, but it wasn’t as likely to become contaminated by sewage.
I would never even think about sticking the hose that people use to clean their stinky slinky into my fresh water tank 🤮

I agree, but on my last outing I witness my neighbor using his white city water hose to flush out his sewer hose. I couldn't watch.

[itat]

Originally Posted by Kaadk

Yes, they usually have only one source, but sometimes that source is from a local spring or well on premises. It is entirely possible for the the 'potable' water to have run through their filtration/treatment system, and the non-potable to have not run through any kind of treatment and be direct pump from the well.

The likelihood of one or the other will be defined by the layout of the dump station. If it's like most of our provincial parks, where there's a 'potable' source 30' from the 'non-potable' dump station on the same driveway, yeah, probably the same treated source. If it's like the campground my parent's seasonal is at, where the only thing near the dump station is the 'non-potable' and your 'potable' supply is somewhere completely else, then it's possible the 'non-potable' is un-treated.

It is possible there could be 2 sources but the non-potable source would have to be very close to the dump station, otherwise, its very unlikely that the campground owner would pay for buried piping any distance from the non-potable source. It's much cheaper to install a backflow preventer device to protect the potable water lines.

[Fluffywhitedogs]

Originally Posted by itat

I agree, but on my last outing I witness my neighbor using his white city water hose to flush out his sewer hose. I couldn't watch.

Gross!

[VBrown]

Originally Posted by Alan F

Attachment 189916

[emoji16]

[Orangecrush]

Just so it was said... I use to drink Dasani bottled water (I like the taste of it) but a friend of mine who sells water filtration systems came over one day and performed a series of tests on bottled water in front of me.

Needless to say, I switch to aquafina bottled water after he showed me the results. Like someone mentioned, half the water we drink we have no idea if it's good or bad. I'm not using non potable water but I ain't skeered using water from my garden hose at my shop or house.

Mark