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.)

Beej, a filter probably catches the lead. The other thing is to let the water run (cold) for a good 5 minutes, every morning before you use it for drinking, cooking, etc. Warm water, and water standing in the pipes draws the lead out of the pipes. A good flushing with cold water (any time you haven't used the pipes for hours) gets a lot of the pipe/solder caused lead out.

A greyhound suffered from lead poisoning? That's scary. The poor pupper.

it's not so much the unfamiliar local microcritters as it is typhoid

Yes, indeed. My aunt and uncle got a very nasty case of whatever in Katmandu. And they toted their own water. The only thing they can think is that some food was prepared with bad water. Makes you grateful to live where water treatment plants exist.

Heather - I have MS Works Database and Access and probably some goofy mac specific thing.

Hurray for Water Treatment!

I really do work for the Sewage and Water Board. At a water treatment plant.

Huh- the Mac specific one was the one I didn't think I could use since it was Mac specific- so we're all set then. If I do it from home it'll be Access, from work- Mac thingie.

Either should work for me.

I will only call the expensive hotels for more info if I get on a serious roll or get really bored or something.

Do the bars in Minneapolis still close at 1 am?

Nope. 2 A.M., now. We're slowly joining the rest of civilisation.

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

That's not Glen Canyon/Lake Powell, is it?

[link] Hetch Hetchy.

A water engineer friend once organized a multi-day tour for a knot of us of the entire water line to SF from the Water Temples (there are several ) in the Bay Area to Hetch Hetchy, inside the dam, inside the gorgeous rancho perched on the edge (the most exclusive public property in Calif., it has been said; all the governors get to stay there, and the water board, and that's about it), to the ... whatsitcalled ... where the water comes down the shute and makes the electricity - man, that is such a trip, it's kind of like the monitoring station a la The China Syndrome - to the former company housing enclave where we spent the night, and on down to a couple of places downstream.It was a very, very cool couple of days. It is said that Hetch Hetchy water is the most pure to be found anywhere. It abuts Yosemite. Lots of bears, if you are a backpacker. Um, the Peninsula has Hetch Hetchy water, too.

eta: there are shots of the Pulgas Water Temple on the page with shots 121 - 132