Drinking Tap Water
...Is it a Good Option?

One of my clearest childhood memories is returning to the U.S. from the Congo, where I was raised. It seemed incredibly wonderful to be able to drink water directly from the tap. I was used to drinking only water that had been boiled and then filtered.

This blessing of quality faucet water is both affirmed and cautioned by Rene Ebersole in her June/July article in National Wildlife, 2004, entitled, "Is Your Drinking water Safe?" She says,

"The quality of U.S. tap water rates better than what is found in most countries, but it doesn't mean you should take it for granted. It's clear, smells fresh, tastes good, but is it safe to drink? ...Truth is American water supplies are some of the cleanest in the world. Still, it sure doesn't hurt to be cautious."

Erik Olson, Senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, puts us on guard by saying,

"Most Americans take it for granted that their tap water is pure and their water infrastructure is safe. They shouldn't."

Is Tap Water Fit for Drinking?

The American Society of Civil Engineers released its "2005 Report Card" on America's water. This was a report card prepared by 24 civil engineers representing a broad spectrum of civil engineering disciplines. They gave the nation's water infrastructure a "D" and said that the drinking water itself had declined from a "D" to a "D-" in the past 4 years. They said the federal funding in 2005 was $850 million, but that this was "less than 10% of the total national requirement.

Some studies estimate that as many as 7 million Americans become sick from contaminated tap water each year. This comes as a result of 1) aging pipes that break and let contaminants into the water, 2) out of date treatment facilities that fail to remove 21st Century contaminants, and 3) such things as storm water run offs, agricultural pesticides and fertilizers, industrial pollution, hazardous waste, and oil and chemical spills.

A report from the National Resources Defense Council found that the quality of drinking water in 9 major cities was a risk to the health of some residents, i.e. those most susceptible to disease as the elderly or small children. The cities with the poorest water quality were: Albuquerque, Boston, Fresno, Phoenix and San Francisco.

What Would It Take to Make Tap Water Fit for Drinking?

The deteriorating quality of faucet water for drinking has no "quick fix" because it is rooted in a whole infrastructure that needs to be renovated and updated to respond to current kinds of pollutants. It is estimated that to upgrade and restore the nations water system would cost between $230 and $500 billion. So far, this has not become a high priority in the U.S. budget. And even if the money were available right now, it would take many years to do the restoring and updating. We need to keep pushing for improvements, but also have alternate ways of purifying our drinking water in the interim.

The current threats of terrorism and chemical warfare add a new urgency to the need for updating and protecting our water infrastructure. David Ozonoff, professor at Boston University's School of Public Health and an expert on waterborne illnesses says,

"We've figured out how to build very efficient water delivery systems, but these systems can either provide safe drinking water, or deliver poisons and harmful organisms into every home, school and workplace. One misstep can lead to disaster, so we must vigorously protect our water sheds and use the best technology to purify our tap water."

What You Can Do to Improve Your Tap Water?

There is currently a debate over whether or not to drink bottled water or tap water? For many years most Americans drank water from the tap. Then due to concerns over faucet water there has been a massive movement on the part of Americans to drinking bottled water. Between 1999 and 2004, the global consumption of bottled water doubled. Americans lead the world in the consumption of bottled water.

Many are taking a second look at the quality of bottled water. They have found that the quality of bottled water is in reality no better, and sometimes worse, than water from the tap. In fact about a quarter of bottled water actually comes from taps and then sometimes treated additionally. The advertising industry has influenced our thinking through the use of pictures of glaciers and springs on the bottles and their vocabulary of "pristine", "mineral water", and "spring water. Today there is a movement back to the tap!

This looks like a battle of words over "the lesser of two evils". Why not take your tap water, pass it through a quality filter of a type you can trust, and come out with a much better quality of drinking water. It has the added benefit of being able to filter out any added pollutants if used by an enemy force some day. For more about water filters go to All about Water Filters.

For more information about tap water, bottled water and related subjects go to "tap water".