Comments

1
I blame Steven Tyler and Keith Richards for this.
2
There are still towns upstream from Seattle. Are they capturing the water in high elevation reservoirs and piping it to the city? Because if they're collecting it in or near the city, I wonder how the water hasn't passed through other municipalities and their wastewater systems.
3
Granted, it's not akin to New Orleans, at the end of the Mississippi and the dozens of major metropolitan centers upstream from them, but that email sounds like the ad copy for an Evian commercial.
4
@2

Pretty sure Seattle gets all their drinking water from the Cedar River watershed and that dumping anything into the river itself is a no-no.
5
@2, you're confusing the location of the city with its water source. Seattle relies on the Chester Morse Lake and Tolt River, both are upstream of cities and towns. The former is entirely undeveloped and largely off limits, the latter though not as restricted is pretty close to the same status. Seattle Public Utilities actually provides and sells water to many of communities on the eastside.
6
Not a Seattleite here, but it seems irresponsible to dump treated fresh water into a salt-water sound. Not only is it potentially problematic from an environmental standpoint (creating brackish water), but fresh water is a precious resource! Route that shit down to California!
7
@6,

What do you think happens to rivers? Should we dam every river on the planet so they don't dilute the oceans?
8
@2: see also: SPU's Our Watershed site.
9
Further to @6,7 - yes, these chemicals appear to be bypassing the humans in Seattle and ending up in the Puget Sound marine life - great! Why don't we "aim" to get this stuff out during waste water treatment, too?
10
@7. Great idea. Think of all the hydrogen power that would create.
11
Thanks for the laugh @6/@7
12
@ 5, I'm from Denver, where water is collected on the other side of the Continental Divide and tunneled back to our side. I'm aware of the differences between watershed and location. I'm also aware that there are a number of small towns upstream from some of those collection points, and a few others along the streams where that water is diverted. They all rely upon the same sources as we do, and as a result their treated wastewater is put into our system. I remember learning in college that even here, at the top of America, our water has on average "passed through two sets of human kidneys," in the lecturer's truly unforgettable phrasing.

It's still very clean and much fresher than the drinking water of most other American cities, but it's not like we're drinking fresh snowmelt or anything. I doubt Seattle is, either.
13
Matt, you're from Denver?
15
omgggg i'm so high off this homeopathic cocaine!
16
Another reason not to live in the south.
17
@12 Read the damn link from @8.
18
The sources of water for Seattle come from massive bowl-shaped mountain watersheds above 1,500ft elevation in areas where all building (and even foot access) above 1,000ft has been prohibited since the turn of the century. These enormous swaths of undeveloped land are not only great for wildlife and the environment, but they provide among the cleanest (and tastiest) drinking water in for a city this size the world over. There are literally no 'upstream' towns or development as the watersheds are completely closed systems at the 'headwater' and fed only by rain and snow. They are also in remote areas and are strictly guarded.

19
@12, actually, Matt, Seattle is drinking pure snow melt, more or less. That is mostly where the Cedar River watershed is sourced.
20
@15: Grinned.
21
A few years ago the Associated Press did a big series (http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactiv…) on pharmaceutical products often found in drinking water—"A vast array of pharmaceuticals including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones."

The good news for the 1.3 million people who drink Seattle water is we're not getting any of that bad stuff.

Seattle's water comes from 103,138 acres of protected mountain watersheds above the Cedar and South Fork Tolt Rivers—96 percent of which is owned by the City of Seattle. The other 4 percent is in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

Reverse Polarity is right: we're drinking pure snowmelt and rain. We have, arguably, the best water in America.
22
I wonder if the average age of first menarche is higher in Seattle than England. I recall a study in England arguing that hormones in the water had accelerated the onset of puberty.
23
Shame homeopathy isn't real or we would all be tripping ball 24/7...
24
@ 17, I did.

You people are missing the point. The water still flows through communities from those points along the watershed. It doesn't arrive in Seattle via special pipeline bypassing those places. It's not bottled at the source, or trucked down to the reservoirs about town.
25
@24
"It doesn't arrive in Seattle via special pipeline bypassing those places."

Actually, it does. I've worked at 2 of the 3 large water treatment facilities serving the metro. Other than home septic systems, there is no wastewater discharge upstream of Seattle or Tacoma's intakes.
26
@24 actually it DOES arrive in Seattle via special pipelines, bypassing communities.

I've taken the Seattle Public Utilities summer Tap Water Tour of the Cedar River Watershed twice over the years, and highly recommend it.

27
So, what have we learned?

Cocaine addicts don't hike in the mountains or piss in the mountain streams. No surprise there.

People in New Orleans are probably right to drink the whiskey instead of the water. ...but it wouldn't be NOLA without both.
28
@21

...provided we or others don't fuck it up with industrial pollutants in the atmosphere like we did with leaded gasoline.
29
@ 26, there we go. Thank you.
30
It is the best water source for schools and offices.Mains-fed water coolers are an ideal, cost effective solution for businesses and organisations who want to offer the best health care for schools and offices.

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