This question is obviously intended for those that live in places where tap water is “safe to drink.”

I live in Southern California, where I’m at the end of a long chain of cities. Occasionally, the tap smells of sulfur, hardness changes, or it tastes… odd. I’m curious about the perspective of people that are directly involved and their reasoning.

  • thesmokingman@programming.dev
    0·
    9 months ago

    I used to work in a municipal city water department. Part of its job was to deal with some chemical blooms from bad waste disposal. While I am not a water science person, I trusted the water science people who told me it was safe and got to tour some of the cool filtration things.

    I didn’t drink the water because water in that area has a “green” taste that’s hard to describe unless you’ve had it. Totally fine to drink, just personal preference. Most people I know gave me a lot of shit for it.

  • philpo@feddit.de
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    9 months ago

    I work as a disaster/contingency planning consultant in Central Europe,not only in terms of water but for everything,but of course water is always an issue. Good friend of mine is the head of the regional government agency controlling the municipal water works around here. While we could do much much more in terms of disaster preparedness there is literally nothing wrong with the water itself - we don’t even have any Chlorine in it, it’s simply not necessary around here. Only when something goes wrong (e.g. main-line breaks) Chlorine will be added for a few weeks.

  • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    The water is pretty solid in a lot of developed countries. If it tastes bad then it might have to do with the pipes and tubing.

  • GreyShuck@feddit.uk
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    9 months ago

    I manage utility services - among other things - for a group of properties - and have had the mains water analysed for chemical and biological contamination at various times. The results have always been absolutely fine. Not just with EU limits, but far, far, far within them for almost everything and definitely well within them for all measures.

    I’ve got no issues at all with drinking tap water in the UK, even given the state of the rivers etc.

    • rah@feddit.ukEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      had the mains water analysed for chemical and biological contamination

      Can I ask how you go about doing that? I may want to test some water soon.

      • GreyShuck@feddit.uk
        0·
        9 months ago

        In my case, I approached our usual plumbing contractor who have a couple of labs that they usually used. I now go directly to those labs.

      • guyrocket@kbin.social
        0·
        9 months ago

        I am sure G! will find local water testing for you.

        But, before you do that, check your municipal water web site. Mine publishes their testing results. Monthly, iirc.

        Of course, this is only part of the puzzle. Your exact tap may have very different results.

    • BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one
      0·
      9 months ago

      And I’m more likely able to get the people responsible for poor quality water or death in result of this in jail over the likelihood of sending billionaire CEOs with their golden parachutes to a minimum security vacation “prison”.

  • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nzEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    I love in NZ, most places in the country have good tap water, sometimes slightly over chlorinated.

  • BlueÆther@no.lastname.nz
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    9 months ago

    I work in food manufacturing and get the local water test results emailed to me monthly - they are alway well within limits

  • GluWu@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    Yes. At one point I “designed” chlorination buildings/ rooms. At least where I live, probably due to the historical happenings with the water, everything is very heavily monitored and systems are redundant. Everyone in the city got this big notice about a failure in the water system. I actually read through it and it was because one station didn’t get one of their scheduled samples. My parents have well water which I grew up on, and think it tastes easy better. But they need a water softener and filters. There’s also a guaranteed amount of heavy metals, even if it’s in a “safe” range.

  • elbowgrease@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    North East, US here. probably fine but I don’t trust it. we use a water filter for drinking

    • MrVilliam@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      9 months ago

      Same. I can take tap water fine but my wife hates it. But even so, we both can tell by taste when the filter is toast. We can also tell from the way our bathroom counters get white buildup just by incidental water droplets during handwashing that we have excessively hard water. Not dangerous but not pleasant.

  • ultranaut@lemmy.world
    0·
    9 months ago

    If you have any reason to suspect the quality of your water, get it tested! It’s not that expensive, you just ship a sample to a lab and they email you a report. Because so many people depend on well water there’s a bunch of labs all over the country that do water quality testing, it’s a relatively cheap and accessible service.

    • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      I’m in mid Michigan, and you’re fine. The circumstances that lead (ba-dum) to the issues in Flint are unlikely to occur elsewhere, particularly if you’re closer to Detroit.

          • EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            0·
            9 months ago

            they moved away from the supply that you’re on.

            As in, that’s what they did before the massive catastrophe that was “everybody gets cancer in the everything”, to paraphrase, right?

            • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
              0·
              9 months ago

              Correct.

              Flint was on the Detroit water supply, and then tried to save money by switching to one that the pipes couldn’t handle, which damaged the protective coating on the pipes and let lead leach into the water.
              After the coating was damaged there was no real way to fix it that was better than “replace the pipes”, which was on the agenda anyway.

              Lead pipes are bad, but they’re typically safe enough that it’s not an emergency due to the coating. It’s a worldwide effort to replace lead pipes with other materials that’s usually happening roughly inline with the usual service replacement schedule, but some places are going faster because of public concern or just a good opportunity. (My local water supply got the budget to do it while doing a different project, so it took two or three times as long, but happened a few decades early and was much cheaper, then when Flint happened they looked great by being able to respond to questions by saying they started years ago and are almost done)

    • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      why trust or not? Just get it tested if you’re worried. Mentioned elsewhere in this thread, you can take a sample and send it out to find if everything is in safe levels. (Just remember all water is going to have impurity, the key words are safe levels)

      • considine@lemmy.ml
        0·
        9 months ago

        Municipal drinking water is tested multiple times per day in Toronto, as it should be. Testing once and assuming the complex machinery and chemical levels are the same a week later is pure folly.

        Note that this is different from testing well water, which shouldn’t change much. Testing well water once a year is a good idea though.

        • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
          0·
          9 months ago

          Oh for sure, I’m not worried at all, but if other people are I don’t see why they don’t just get it tested rather than buying hundreds of dollars in bottled water

        • StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.org
          0·
          9 months ago

          Not expensive but it depends on what you want to test. Most of the available tests can be gotten from aquarium supply stores. Got to keep fish healthy after all. Others can be gotten from pool supply companies.

        • Artisian@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          9 months ago

          depending on how much want to do, I have seen kits for ~$30. Pretty sure I’ve seen some small kits taken for camping, so they can’t be too pricy. And if you can’t afford it, just start bringing it up around town! Maybe somebody will get excited and do it for you.

          • EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            0·
            9 months ago

            I don’t buy bottled water. I buy gallon jugs that I then refill at a filling station. Where I’m at, the filling station is typically about 0.40 USD/gallon.

            Still, I get your point. It would, of course, still be cheaper by far to use tap water.

            • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
              0·
              9 months ago

              Personally, I would trust those filling stations a whole lot less than my tap water. Tap water is constantly purified and being tested, and strictly regulated my multiple agencies, and the press is ready to jump on it the second it’s unsafe.

              One of those filling stations? Well for one the water I’m 90% sure is the same tap water anyway, and for 2, do they produce reports every month showing how safe they are like our city water does?

              • EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
                0·
                9 months ago

                Tap water is constantly purified

                But unlike a lot of the filling station water, tap water is often not purified with UV or reverse osmosis. (I looked it up and mine isn’t anyway.) So some dangerous byproducts from mining and the like get through.

                and the press is ready to jump on it the second it’s unsafe.

                Honestly, this is an excellent point I hadn’t thought of.

                One of those filling stations? Well for one the water I’m 90% sure is the same tap water anyway …

                It is, I believe, but with UV & reverse-osmosis so it’s more strongly filtered than tap water in the end.

                … and for 2, do they produce reports every month showing how safe they are like our city water does?

                Fair point.

                 

                (Also, please be aware that I fully admit I am not knowledgeable on this stuff; I’m just trying my best. So, if I am spouting any misconceptions, I welcome correction as long as it is kindly done.)

  • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
    0·
    9 months ago

    Not a water person, but it might be the fire departments fault. If they use a hydrant upstream of you it flows so much water so fast that it can stir up some older stuff that’s been sitting in there a while.

  • my_hat_stinks@programming.dev
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    9 months ago

    Where I am most people are happy to drink the tap water, and we’re all oddly proud of it. Which is fair, it’s great water. Very soft too, I remember seeing ads on TV for products to remove limescale but that doesn’t really happen here much. I find it a little odd that some places’ tap water is so full of impurities that it leaves mineral deposits on their appliances.

    Come to Scotland, try our tap water!

  • August27th@lemmy.ca
    0·
    9 months ago

    I was in the industry for a decent amount of years. I know the operators of the water plants around me. I never hesitate to drink the tap water in my area. At home it goes through the filter in my fridge, which manages the runoff taste in the spring, and keeps the water cold.