IME, most places have both sparkling and still, but very few people will opt for the still, if they're paying for water at all.

In Peru we were told to get sparkling because some places would re-fill still bottles with tap.

Great. I'm on my way home, I'll work on it this weekend.

Frankly, I'd say not to waste your time on the $150 plus ones.

I lurve my Brita. If I thought I could spare the fridge space, I'd upgrade to one of the big square ones.

I have one of the big tank ones with a spigot on the front. It takes up a lot of room but it's so incredibly worth it.

Do you have a database program at home -t? What kind?

In Peru we were told to get sparkling because some places would re-fill still bottles with tap.

Not just Peru. It happened to me in Spain. I actually saw the guy take an empty bottle and start to fill it from the tap. I hate sparkling water and refuse to order it, so after that I just drank the tap water. I never had any problems with it, I just had that held over prejudice that any country other than America was going to do nasty things to my intestines if I drank their water. Come to find out, it's not that the water is bad, just that each area has different microorganisms than what you stomach is used to. Once you get used to them, the tummy problems disappear. Coming back from Spain one time (to Virginia) I had quite a problem adapting to the water. My first week back I spent a lot of my break time in the bathroom. But then my system acknowledged the intruders, decided they weren't harmful and quit giving me grief.

Toddson is not wrong about DC's water in general, but it is also not going to burn through your clothes or anything.

Even though my building is circa 1860, I've got copper water lines as opposed to the lead ones causing all the trouble.

t Raising my hand also to be kept in the Nilly loop for DC activities

I considered administering a revitalized DCista list but wonder how much interest there would be in using one.

I guess I should make that a question, eh?

DCistas Raise your hand (or send an email to my profile addy) if you would like to be included in/use a local contact list. Signed, Never one to shirk a chance to be responsible for something. it's a disease

what the hell is a hetch hetchy?

It was allegedly prettier than Yosemite. They dammed it up. All our water and power come from that dam.

Even though my building is circa 1860, I've got copper water lines as opposed to the lead ones causing all the trouble.

With older copper pipes, there can still be a lead problem, because lead was used in soldering them.

With older copper pipes, there can still be a lead problem, because lead was used in soldering them.

This is true. I suppose I should get the water tested, but I use a schmancy filter on the sink and another (not so schmancy) on the shower head. Doesn't make the water taste Cape Cod good, but I'm assuming it won't kill me or the fuzzball.

(it was very sad to hear that a greyhound in our park suffered from lead poisoning. eep.)

In Peru we were told to get sparkling because some places would re-fill still bottles with tap.

It's the same in India. (And over there, it's not so much the unfamiliar local microcritters as it is typhoid. So we carried our own water everywhere and drank a lot of soda.)