Saturday, August 18, 2012

8/14 Environmentally Unfriendly?? (Addendum)

OK, I have to confess that I forgot to mention that I do drink a lot of bottled water.  I do so in many places because I do not trust the water quality, either in my tanks or from the water hose hooked up to my site. 

I don't know if this makes sense, but I tend to trust water from national and state parks more than commercial RV parks because I believe they are more likely to be regulated and testing done more often.  In that case, I will drink that water from the tap if it is coming directly into my water system through a hose and will also refill water bottles and freeze them. (Some of you know I love really cold drinks!)

Explanation: I have two water systems.  One is the 60 gallon storage tank that I have to refill at a water station.  I refill the tanks whenever they run low and I have no hookups or "shore" water, but there is always some residual water left in the tanks, so periodically I add a bit of chlorox to sanitize the tanks, especially when I can drive and slosh it around.  The result is tap water that is sometimes a bit too chlorinated to drink without adding more water.  Other times, I distrust the water becauese it has sat in the tanks in very hot weather for too long.  This system requires a water pump to take water from the tanks and deliver it to taps and the toilet for use.

The other system is a direct hookup from a pressurized campground water system.  I have a special water hose that is used ONLY for drinking water and attaches to a tap next to my campsite that is supposed also to be used only for drinking water.  I keep caps on the ends of my water hose when it is stored in my "clean" utility storage area so it doesn't get contaminated if I drop it on the ground when hooking up or unhooking it. (I do that a LOT!)  I also make sure the campground tap is clean and rinse it before hooking up my hose, plus I run some water through the hose before connecting it to my RV.  This system is under pressure, much like your home system is under pressure, and water goes directly to the taps. 
I have no problems using either system for bathing, flushing, cooking, or even doing dishes, but I am a bit unsure about using some of the water I get for drinking.  That's why I often drink bottled water.  I suppose I ought to buy it in the larger bottles, but storage is an issue, but I do try to limit bottled water as much as I can and refill the plastic bottles at a "safe' supply. 
So, I suppose bottled water is my big environmental guilt thing.  I will be in national parks soon, and right now I am at my son's house, so I am mostly drinking tap water. 

Other environmental guilt trip is that I am lousy at recycling plastic and paper.  Need to improve on that according to son, Rob, who has been known to sort through my trash.

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