Bostonista Does Not Love: That Dirty Water

Since we’re the first to admit when we’re slow on the upswing, we’re also allowed to brag when we come in way ahead of the curve, right?

Right.

Our latest visionary moment involves…water.

Because Bostonista HQ houses a fervent environmentalist, a couple of germaphobes, someone raised by a cancer survivor, and a devoted reader of the most insane health column ever, we were all over the bisphenol/toxic plastic/Nalgene problem well before BPA-free water bottles started popping up at Target.

Hell, we were drinking out of stainless steel water bottles years ago, when purchasing such a bottle required 25 minutes of concerted Googling and a willingness to type your credit card number into the dubious-looking website of a Chico, California-based company. (Thanks to a certain cultural phenomenon of the time, we knew only that Chico produced troubled, leather-cuff-wearing youths—not forward-thinking hydration products.)

Anyway. Klean Kanteens are now sold everywhere; no one microwaves plastic anymore; and everyone is freaked out about BPA’s weird hormonal side effects.

But! While everyone totes around their safe, ecofriendly water bottles…we suspect that they’re still drinking out of Culligan-style bottled water dispensers and/or water filtration systems. And, thanks to an exclusive Bostonista investigation, we can tell you that the majority of these systems are repulsive. As in…truly, truly awful.

Have you ever looked inside the base of your office’s water system? (You probably shouldn’t.) There are—guaranteed—things growing in it. Even if you have the bottle-less filtration system that runs directly from your tap, there’s still a filter that is supposed to be changed every month (but is likely changed, um, never). And a lot of stagnant water.

Call us obnoxiously neurotic, but we’re pretty sure that whatever breeds in a wet environment is more dangerous than BPA. So keep your SIGGs and Klean Kanteens, but please, please, please fill them up at the sink instead of the water bottle.

We’re pretty sure we just saved your life.