Question:
Why does city water stink? We are close to the Edwards Aquifer whose water inpolluting (even if recyclable bottles) I can pay for in the the store butcannot get on tap, while millions gallons of that water is used in industrialand agricultural operations like catfish farming, where its quality istotally wasted.

There was something about bottling Austin city water a while back, but thewater I have seen in northwest part of Austin has for most of lastyear smelled like stale water being changed out of an overcrowded aquarium.

Looking for a solution: In there any place in South Austin, or south of Austinwhere I can go fill up a dozen or more gallon bottles for free or on the cheap?(Even something similar to the machines with deceptive pictures of mountainsand glaciers that we see dispensing filtered tap water for 25c a gal). Ibelieve even UNFILTERED aquifer water from a tap will be as good as saythe bottled Ozarka in the stores.

Answer: There's a couple of things you should know about Austin's water. I used tobe a chemist for the Water Wastewater utility.

We take our water from the Colorado river, not the aquifer. We take ourwater from Lake Austin using the Ulrich and Davis water stations and fromTown lake using the Green water treatment plant.

We have (arguably) the best water source in the nation. Look upstream.There is no major industrial or agricultural area upstream. There havenever been found any pesticide or herbicide residues in Austin's rawdrinking water. DDE and DDD have been found in Town Lake sediment and fish,however.

Also, the water, before it reaches the intake station, resides in a fewgranite lined lakes: Buchanan, Inks, LBJ that do great things for taste andodor. We have a similar geology of reservoirs that New York City's watercomes from. Both Austin and New York, and New Orleans, paradoxically (NOhas arguably the worst water source in the nation) always score high intaste and odor competitions.

That being said, the water can taste "off" or "green" some times of theyear, esp. late spring or late fall. Drink bottled water for a while andcheck back. I bet you your water's taste will improve.