"All natural occurring water - with the exception of freshly fallen rain - contains dissolved salts of one type or another."

Well, actually, there was a documentary which claimed that part of the reason for the salt probelem in much of inland Australia was not just the past submersion of the land under the sea, but that rain evaporated from the sea contains traces of salt - over millions of years this builds up.

Not an inorganic chemist with enough background for this - I was taught that this was unlikely as the water effectively "distilled" - but am always willing to take on new facts - anyone more experienced in this field care to comment?

Robin