“Modern municipal water treatment is one of the all-time greatest public health achievements,” Commissioner Debra Shore of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago reminds us. “Many thousands of people — maybe more! — used to die from cholera, typhoid and other waterborne diseases. No longer — at least in the developed world where we have excellent water utilities. It is simply reckless to revert to untreated sources of water because they’ve been pitched as ‘pure’ or ‘raw.’ When I go camping I bring a water filter because even the purest mountain streams can have harmful bacteria. Talk to anybody who’s gotten giardia from drinking water from clear mountain streams.”