Home
Log in / Sign Up
    Private Messages   Advanced Search   Rules   New User Guide   FAQ   Advertise   Contact Us  
Forum -> Household Management
NYC water (far Rockaway)



Post new topic   Reply to topic View latest: 24h 48h 72h

amother
Violet


 

Post Fri, Jul 24 2015, 2:26 pm
If you live in nyc, specifically far Rockaway, do you use tap water for cooking? This question is in regards to health/hygiene/taste, not kashrus.
For drinking I use bottled water, but it's too expensive to use for cooking
Back to top

gp2.0




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 24 2015, 3:09 pm
I love Catskills Mountain Water!!! Aka NYC tap water. It is soo good with a distinctive sweet taste and smooth mouthfeel, unlike some bottled waters that feel chalky and taste bland.

Is there some reason why the Brooklyn water supply would be different than the queens one? Was the water supply damaged during hurricane sandy or does something else influence the taste? Do you have old pipes that are influencing the taste?
Back to top

amother
Seashell


 

Post Fri, Jul 24 2015, 4:57 pm
What else would you use? NYC has one of the best, if not the best, tasting municipal water supplies in the country and possibly the world. This is not a jingoistic Knickerbocker speaking but people from many different parts of the country, ranging from New Jersey to California and overseas. All agree, NYC water is the best. Besides which, few bottled waters are really from crystal-clear, unpolluted virgin springs from the center of the earth. Most are plain tap water from the municipal supplies of places like Lickspittle, AR.
Back to top

amother
Violet


 

Post Fri, Jul 24 2015, 6:07 pm
Thanks for your responses.
So you ladies don't filter it at all? It's safe? No bugs or chemicals?
Back to top

MagentaYenta




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 24 2015, 8:13 pm
amother wrote:
Thanks for your responses.
So you ladies don't filter it at all? It's safe? No bugs or chemicals?


Bugs? Even on wells with untreated water people don't have bugs in their water. Are you talking microorganisms?
Back to top

Lanz892




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jul 26 2015, 7:16 am
I live in the five towns and was told it needs to be filtered
Back to top

Rutabaga




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jul 26 2015, 8:58 am
5 Towns water is not the same as NYC water. It has a different source.
Back to top

Lanz892




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jul 26 2015, 9:04 am
I lived in the city a few months ago as well and there was told its especially important to filter
Back to top

gp2.0




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jul 26 2015, 9:36 am
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/ht.....shtml

According to this, queens water used to be sourced from underground wells, but they have been phased out from 1996-2007 and haven't been used since 2007. It doesn't say where the water does come from now. Is the water now being supplied by the upstate reservoirs or is there another source?
Back to top

gp2.0




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jul 26 2015, 9:50 am
amother wrote:
Thanks for your responses.
So you ladies don't filter it at all? It's safe? No bugs or chemicals?


If you're really concerned, just install a filter on your faucet. My fridge actually does include a filter but I'm not sure exactly what it filters and I don't care. I use the fridge because it chills the water not because I was concerned about filtering and I'm fine with drinking and using water straight from the tap.

Of course there are chemicals added to the water, I can think of chlorine and fluoride off the top of my head but there are probably more. The addition of chemicals does not make water unsafe. It is added to ensure the water's quality and safety, as a matter of fact. You wouldn't want contaminated water that birds had pooped in or that had harmful bacteria growing in it would you?

It's funny, I learned hilchos sheratzim (bugs) in high school and the Halacha clearly states that if a bug can't be seen with the naked eye, the Halacha does not apply. When the bugs in the water craze started I would fill cups of water and hold them up in the sunlight, attempting to see these so-called bugs. I never saw even one. No one I knew ever saw one either. FWIW I have a good eye for seeing bugs, even on dark or patterned backgrounds, so in clear water lit by sunlight it should have been easy to see the bugs if they were visible to the naked eye. They weren't.
Back to top

amother
Seashell


 

Post Sun, Jul 26 2015, 5:17 pm
OP, you said you were asking about taste and hygiene, not kashrut. The filtering thing IIRC was for the five boros. What it boils down to is how you hold vis-a-vis technology and kashrus. According to classical halacha, a bug that is not visible to the naked eye doesn't count. How could it possibly? So you should be able to drink the water no problem, However, the water authority stated that there are copepods in the water. This was based on microscopic examination. So, if we KNOW they're there but they are invisible to the naked eye, do we accept the naked eye or the microscope? Well, hmm. We're not required to examine our veggies with a microscope, so we accept naked eye for that. But, we know the copepods are there because somebody looked. The obvious when-in-doubt thing to do is to pasken trayf and tell people they must filter their water. If whichever clever talmid chochom it was hadn't investigated, you could all cheerfully go about drinking your unfiltered water with no problem.

In answer to your original question, the reason why this is a question only in NYC is that NYC WATER IS SO GOOD IT REQUIRES NO FILTRATION to meet common standards of purity. Cities with water that is less clean have to treat it and filter it before it can be released into the municipal supply.

In practice, filtering NYC water is no big deal. You buy a small faucet-mounted filtration unit, clean it or replace the filter according to the directions, and finished. There's absolutely bo reason for you to be srinking bottled water, which may be less pure lechatchila than NYC water, and unless you're getting water bottled in glass, you're getting minute quantities of plasticizers and other toxins from the plastic bottles, ESPECIALLY if the bottle s are ever exposed to heat, like from being stored in the trunk of your car or a garage that gets hot in summer. If you leave a bottle of water in your car on a hot day in summer, use the water to water your plants or wash the laundry but don't drink it.
Back to top

granolamom




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 27 2015, 10:17 pm
I miss my far rockaway water, much better tasting than five towns water. but iirc, Far Rock water is flouridated.
Back to top

amother
Gray


 

Post Mon, Jul 27 2015, 10:21 pm
Rutabaga wrote:
5 Towns water is not the same as NYC water. It has a different source.

Well that explains why the water in the Cedarhurst restaurants tasted so bad. Had no idea.
Back to top

amother
Violet


 

Post Mon, Jul 27 2015, 11:02 pm
I don't care if I can see them or not- the thought of drinking "bugs" or whatever they're called grosses me out.
Filter on my sink is tough to figure out for various reasons.
So it seems the consesus is that it's safe.
Back to top

amother
cornflower


 

Post Mon, Jul 27 2015, 11:16 pm
gp2.0 wrote:


It's funny, I learned hilchos sheratzim (bugs) in high school and the Halacha clearly states that if a bug can't be seen with the naked eye, the Halacha does not apply. When the bugs in the water craze started I would fill cups of water and hold them up in the sunlight, attempting to see these so-called bugs. I never saw even one. No one I knew ever saw one either. FWIW I have a good eye for seeing bugs, even on dark or patterned backgrounds, so in clear water lit by sunlight it should have been easy to see the bugs if they were visible to the naked eye. They weren't.


The infestation (or lack thereof) varies by neighborhood. It is very possible that there were no copepods in your water. There were none in my neighborhood either.

I have a family member who has spotted them in cups of water (and when he doesn't see them, he says that the water is fine). With his bare eyes, no magnification at all.
Back to top
Page 1 of 1 Recent Topics




Post new topic   Reply to topic    Forum -> Household Management

Related Topics Replies Last Post
Do you have the OHr leShabbat small hot water urn/kettle.
by amother
1 Today at 9:12 am View last post
Fixing water damage upstate
by amother
1 Today at 12:23 am View last post
Far Rockaway -School hours for Siach/yeshiva Katana/Darchei
by amother
8 Mon, Mar 25 2024, 10:15 am View last post
What to tip Instacart for water bottle delivery
by amother
11 Sun, Mar 24 2024, 6:13 pm View last post
Can I use tide coldwater pods with hot water in laundry?
by amother
0 Thu, Mar 21 2024, 11:23 pm View last post