I can't believe the amount of people here who think water is free. The distinction, not so subtle, is - water is free, but for many of us *clean* water is not. I drank tap water (ground well) in Vermont all the time. But in Chicago? Please - I won't touch the shit that comes out of the tap. YOu can taste the foulness. I use a filter for every drop I drink here - yeah, buying water is way expensive. Sorry - fact of life. Just thought those of you living on glaciers and in cleaner areas might want to know why some of us buy or filter our water.
Related story: I was driving across I80 in Nebraska (I80 lets you see Nebraska in all it's *ahem* glory - a 10-12 hour drive) and noticed when we stopped at rest areas that there were signs posted saying not to drink the water because it was too polluted with nitrates. And I had been wondering through the whole drive if those big long water/pesticide spraying machines that stretched across the land caused any damage.
[img]graemlins/offtopic.gif[/img] All those nitrates are the same ones that wash right down the Miss. River and cause what's commonly refered to as a "dead zone" in the Gulf - too many nitrates for fish to survive well.
I'll tell you that those of you in a lot of places, like Texas (ranked with Indiana in the "most polluted states" list), that chimed in on this post would not drink your water if you knew what was in it.