Our drinking water is not all that safe

I saw a petition online about saving our drinking water from more contaminants, and I probably wouldn't have paid much notice to it except I have a water/chemicals issue of my own. The petition asks that the DEP not ease restrictions on toxic chemicals permitted in our surface waters. A seven member committee set up by Gov. Rick Scott would allow a new rule that would permit higher limits for dozens of cancer-causing chemicals to be allowed in the water. You can read more about it here and sign the petition if you like.

The reason this hits close to home with me is that on Monday, I had the plumber over to fix a problem with my bathroom sink. It was leaking from below. He called me into the bathroom and told me to look at what he found. This is the glass vessel sink upside down on the counter. See that pipe that's eaten away? He told me the water did that. The sink water. I am assuming that the water mixed with toothpaste and maybe some cleaning solvent did this over time, and not just the water itself, however, I have three bathrooms and all three had a problem due to the water. The other two had an issue regarding the water coming out of the faucets, so this was water being a nuisance before it even reached the sink. One bathroom sink was totally blocked, no water was coming out. After taking the faucet apart, the plumber showed me a pile of small pebbles, sort of like grains of sand - debris in the pipes - sediment. Another sink was draining very slow, almost stopped up because of the water sediment. All this crap is in the city water; the drinking, cleaning, cooking and bathing water.

I always remember a funny story from I think 2005, when Hurricane Wilma or Katrina passed by. The next day, people were waiting hours in line for bottled water. The mayor, Carlos Alvarez, came on tv and said, "People, you don't have to wait hours in line for a bottle of water, just turn on your faucets!" That always made me laugh. But now I can see why people were waiting for the bottled water, although I think it was just out of habit and not because of the poor water coming out of the faucets.

I filter the water from the kitchen sink and refrigerator and have tried to not use plastic bottles for environmental reasons and also because that is supposed to be unsafe, too - the plastic bottles in the heat or sun may emit some sort of chemical into the water. So what's safe to drink anymore?

Again, please check out the petition here and sign if if you want safer drinking water.