Tag Archives: tap water

My Water, Water Quality

Five Reasons Why You Should Drink Tap Water

At Charlotte Water, we are not just employees, we are also customers. Here are a few reasons why we drink tap water too.

#1 – Charlotte Water’s reliable drinking water treatment plants and distribution system are award winning.

Charlotte Water is a member of the Partnership for Safe Water and our main plant (Franklin) received the Director’s Award for Water Treatment in 2018. Charlotte Water is also a designated Utility of the Future and in 2018 received special recognition for the utility’s work in environmental innovation. Our engineers and plant operators build redundancy into every system from our pipe systems to our computer systems.

#2 – Testing, testing, monitoring, and more testing

Charlotte Water has had perfect drinking water permit compliance since January 2015. [The January 2015 violation was an administrative citation.] Our lab staff conduct more than 200,000 monitoring tests every year on more than 150 different constituents. “A significant part of our job is keeping up with the latest regulatory requirements,” said lab manager Alan Hilling. “The work we do isn’t like you see on TV. There is much more involved than simply putting a sample into a machine, pressing a button, and getting instant results.” Check out our Consumer Confidence Report and Annual Water Quality Report. This year’s Water Quality Report will arrive in your mailbox June 2020.

#3 – A gallon of water is less than a penny!

Cost per gallon
Gallon of gas$2.34
Gallon of milk$2.89
Gallon of ice cream$3.09
Gallon of detergent$17.99
Gallon of Charlotte Water$.003 (a third of a cent)
Why spend more?

#4 – Water. It does a body good.

Through the I Heart Water partnership between Charlotte Water and Mecklenburg County Health Department, we know that drinking tap water:

  • Fights fatigue
  • Helps decrease stress
  • Prevents tooth decay
  • Fights off dehydration which can lead to poor organ function and illness
  • Helps you stay cool when it’s hot outside

#5 – The best pre-beer in town

One of the main reasons the brewing industry is thriving in Charlotte is because of the water here.

We spoke with Carolina Brew Master’s President Richard lane for his opinion. “Water quality is paramount to brewing, as water is easily 95% of the finished product.  At a base level, if the water is good enough to drink, it’s good enough to brew beer.”

He went on to say, “Over 100 years ago, when these local beers were being created, they could not have been developed in the other city, strictly due to the minerals in the water, and how those minerals impact the brewing process.  This is also one reason why “drink local” is so meaningful to the craft beer movement.  An IPA brewed in Charlotte will be different from the same IPA brewed in Colorado, or even Raleigh, because the water profile is different.”

Charlotte Water has been in operation since 1899. We serve more than 108 million gallons of water every day to the Charlotte community.

My Water, Water Quality

Your Garden Hose May Affect The Taste of Your Tap Water.

Sadly, this summer heat is not fading as we move into fall. Did you know that hot weather and your garden hose can cause funky drinking water tastes and odors in your plumbing?

Here are some pro tips to help you with this issue:

  • Disconnect the hose and run cold water from your faucet for a few minutes to flush the pipes.
  • Need a sip of water on a hot day? Get it from your internal sources (refrigerator, pitcher) instead of a garden-variety garden hose which aren’t manufactured for delivering potable (drinking) water.

If the taste or odor is still present after detaching the garden hose from external spigots, please call 311 or 704-336-7600. You can learn more about our water quality at charlottewater.org

 

Drought & Conservation, My Water

Pledge to be Bottle Free in CMGC

With the release of our annual Water Quality Report also comes the initiative “Bottle free in CMGC (Charlotte Mecklenburg Government Center.)” The main idea of this is to reduce plastic waste from water bottles within the government center. How do we do this? It is through a multiple step process.

The first step was to show the confidence we had in our tap water. Many people drink from bottled water because they know it is clean and have confidence in it. We too have confidence in our tap water and the ability to provide it 24/7. Our water meets and exceeds the state and federal requirements, making us confident in what we serve you.

Next was the implementation of recyclable compostable drinking cups. These cups are made out of corn and are environmentally friendly. These cups are offered at every meeting to make sure that even those who forgot their reusable bottles can feel confident that they are not producing waste.

Tumblers were put at each council member’s seat in order to also provide them with the tools to drink bottle free. These tumblers are being given out in the Government Center as a way to not only have a resource to not use bottles, but as a way to remind people about the excellence we provide in our tap water.

With that, we also provided the government center with pitchers for meeting and events. These pitchers not only save waste, but are also a symbol during meetings of the initiative and the idea the Environmental Committee has that  “Charlotte will become a global leader in environmental sustainability, balancing economic growth, while preserving our natural resources.”

Last was the pledge from Environment Committee Chair, Councilwoman Kinsey. She pledged that the City Council would not use water bottles, and would use sustainable materials moving forward. When asked about why this was important to her she said, “It just makes sense to be using these renewable and sustainable products. If we don’t start using these products now, we are all going to be living on top of landfills.”

Not using water bottles can have a large impact on our landfills. At Charlotte Water our partnership with the Government Center is a step forward in creating a better Earth.  For every six water bottles, only one will be recycled. Those that do not end up being recycled can take hundreds of years to disintegrate in landfills. These two facts alone have convinced us to be bottle free. Will you take the pledge with us?