The Water Works Case file #1 TROUBLED WATERS Facts: Every single time I turn a faucet, water pours out. This morning the water coming from our kitchen tap smelled v-e-r-y strange. Questions: Where exactly does this water come from? How do agents deliver clean water to us at any moment? What is that smell? My Theory: Special water agents must have built secret passages to carry rain to our homes. Maybe when one of those agents was checking our passage, she spilled something into it. Maybe THAT'S what I can smell. Take a look around your city or town. See a lake anywhere nearby? Or maybe a river? Your water probably comes from there. Or it may come from a well or an aquifer, a stream or a lake that's deep underground.

But before any of it reaches your tap, stuff has to happen to it. Water specialists pump lake water or river water through a filter. That gets rid of any leaves or garbage that might be floating in it. Then the specialists test that lake water, or water they're pumping up from underground, to see exactly what's in it. Not all water's clean enough to make it into your kitchen. Some contains germs that would make you sick if you swallowed them. The water specialists add chemicals, such as chlorine, to kill those germs and make the water safe for drinking. The clean water usually gets pumped into large storage tanks.

Look around the place where you live. You might see a storage tank standing up on tall legs. If it's near your home, the water pouring out of your tap probably comes from there. [ illustration caption: ] What you're smelling is chlorine gas. It kills germs that may be in the water. [ sidebar -- newspaper clipping: ] Ice Cold People in some parts of the world have melted glaciers coming out of their taps. About 40% of the tap water in Boulder, Colorado, used to be ice in the Arapahoe Glacier above the city. Others too have realized that melted ice can be good to drink.

Companies that sell water in bottles have started harvesting water from glaciers and icebergs. Desert countries have even considered towing a giant iceberg to their area so that as it melts, they'll have fresh water. So far, no one's figured out how to get the iceberg where they want it without it melting too fast or shattering. [ illustration caption: ] Are giant icebergs sub-zero spy bases for international operations?.