I never drank directly from the tap when I was a kid. Admittedly, I grew up in India, and even to this day, drinking untreated tap water there is a surefire way to encounter ‘intestinal distress’.
But when I moved to the US, I found out that tap water was perfectly safe. I could swallow water in the shower. I could drink from a hose. And for years, that’s just what I did.
Then I went back home for a visit and forgot the lessons of childhood. Put simply, I memorized the tile pattern in my aunt’s bathroom.
As soon as I came back to the US, I did what any dedicated nerd would do: I read everything my library had on water, its treatment, and its safety.
I learned about the US’s history with water, from the flaming lakes to the slaughterhouse runoff. I learned about the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the grand civic works that put water treatment and safety into the infrastructure of cities across the country. I learned that the World Health Organization’s standards were built off the EPAs standards, pushing the American standard of water safety into the international community.
In the United States, tap water is generally considered safe for consumption. The EPA sets and enforces quality standards for drinking water through the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Public water systems are required to regularly test and treat water to meet these standards, and the majority of Americans receive their water from community water systems that comply with these regulations.
If you’re curious, you can find your city’s water reports on any number of websites. Here’s where you can find NYC’s water report. The EPA even publishes reports on every communal water source in the country.
Tap Water Still Has to Get to Your House
While some companies use this information to suggest water filtration methods, there are issues with this approach. After all, there’s a lot of things between your water source and your faucet. Having a single lead pipe in your building makes the purity of your water source a little less relevant.
Like old lead pipes, there are other issues with the US infrastructure. Some systems are modern and up to date, but most are aging in place. The funding to update these critical pieces of infrastructure is often diverted to more pressing matters, such as housing. And the EPA has a hell of a time convincing local governments to improve their filtration methods, much less to even start measuring emerging contaminants, like PFAS, PFOS, and microplastics.
Tap Water vs. Bottled Water
But even with those issues, the tap water, in most parts of the United States, is almost as good as the water you find in bottled water. As is true with a lot of things in late stage capitalism, it’s on you - the consumer - to not let fear mongering force you to buy things you don’t need.
Bottled water is convenient, but it isn’t much healthier or better for you than tap water. In a lot of ways, it’s actually unhealthier than tap water. Here’s what I mean.
First, there's the leaching of contaminants from the bottle itself to the water. We all remember the “don’t leave your plastic bottle in the sun”. These chemicals can be harmful for people with weakened or compromised systems, but they aren’t lethal or deadly.
Next there’s the microplastics in the water itself. In a study done in January of 2024, “...plastics concentrations were estimated to be about 2.4 ± 1.3 × 105 particles per liter of bottled water...” These microplastics exist in tap water too, so this is a case of apples to apples. Except the apples are microplastics.
Finally, there’s the plastic bits we introduce into the bottle when we break the seal. You probably haven’t even considered it, but to open the seal, you have to shred a plastic ring. Then, you press that ring against your mouth to swallow the liquid. There isn’t any data to support how much plastic you ingest this way, but you can completely avoid it by just drinking tap water instead.