Can you drink tap water safely in the area of the USA you live ?

33 comments

1. 97% of Americans have access to potable tap water.

2. Yes, no issues

3. In almost every community in the nation tapwater is cleaner than bottled water and very close to free.

4. It’s extremely rare to live anywhere in the US where the tap water isn’t clean and safe to drink, and most of the people who think they live in one of those areas are wrong. It’s the kind of thing that’s so rare that you might as well just ignore it because it will almost certainly never affect you.

5. Yes, not an issue

6. Can I safely drink mine how it comes out of the ground? Yes, it’s been lab tested and is safe, but it tastes and smells like ass. I have a reverse osmosis system and a water softener that removes all the unpleasant stuff.

7. I could take you back into the hills here and show you the coldest, best tasting natural springs straight off of the mountains. But yep tap water is safe here.

8. Generally bottled water is just filtered tap water from another region.

   My refrigerator has a filter in it so 90+% of the tap water I drink is filtered, but I’ll drink from the sink when I get up in the middle of the night thirsty

9. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/15hbyf9/do_you_drink_tap_water/

   Less than 24 hours ago

10. Yes, our tap water is safe to drink.

11. Someone used to sell our tap water to other parts of the country

    Idk if they still do and how they got away with it but if it’s good enough to bottle and sell it should be good enough to drink aside from Dasani or Aquafina I suppose

12. Yes, tap water is very safe in America.

13. My tap water also makes beer “as cold as the Rockies”.

14. yes

15. The water in the Northeast is *very* good, even by US standards. Not only is it drinkable, it tastes good too.

    I worked at an industrial facility in Southern Maine. The town pulled from the same aquifer as Poland Spring. The water out of the the pipes, even in the shitty old industrial buildings still tasted better than bottled water.

    At that facility I actually worked on systems to process and “clean” the water for our uses. We needed water that was very clean for our processes, almost medical grade. I say we “cleaned” it because it almost met the specs right out of the municipal pipes. We didn’t really have to do too much to it, unlike other sites around the country. Other places had water that was perfectly safe to drink, but still had minerals or other particles in it that would’ve affected our industrial uses.

16. I would assume that tap water is safe to drink everywhere in the USA. Unless someone specifically tells you different.

    We use a brita pitcher at home because my wife grew up on well water and doesn’t like the taste of municipal tap water. The taste varies by location, but I never minded.

    Finding out that tap water is unsafe somewhere would be a big deal, but it happens – like in Flint, MI.

17. yeah I am drinking some tap water right now

18. Yes.

19. The water itself is very good, I drink it and like the taste. I live in a city that built a system of reservoirs in the late 19th and early 20th century. These are in the hills west of town, at the top of the watershed and surrounded by conservation land so there’s nothing that can contaminate the water. I had the opportunity to tour the treatment plant, the operator told me that the water generally meets standards for safety and aesthetics as-is out of the reservoir, but he always has to apply a dose of chlorine for distribution. I live in a small city, Boston and NYC have even more impressive water sources, larger and further isolated. Where things might break down is distribution – a lot of the pipes and tanks in municipalities and residences are old and unhealthy. Additionally, you don’t have to go too far out into the country and most people will have well water, which is a crapshoot. My parents’ well water is so hard that it has to be softened for domestic uses, which renders it practically undrinkable

20. It’s safe where I am but I don’t. I don’t like the taste.

21. Tap water in the US doesn’t always taste good, but apart from a few well-known examples, municipal water is overwhelmingly safe.

    Many people in rural areas (like myself) get their water from wells. Occasionally, this water can get contaminated, particularly if the well isn’t properly drilled, but this usually will only affect individual households.

22. Yes. I’d say it’s safe in the vast majority of the country. When it’s *unsafe*, it makes the news. You should *never* have to worry about drinking the tap water in the US.

23. I have a well and the water is safe to drink untreated.

24. Yes

25. Idk but I’ve been drinking tap water in the USA for 36 years and haven’t died so far

26. Yes, the tap water in the DC area, unless you live somewhere with lead pipes, is safe to drink.

27. Yes

28. Yes

29. Yes. You can pretty much everywhere. Marketing is why people drink bottled wated.

30. Only time I’ve not been able to drink the tap water was after a natural disaster or something that disrupted the municipal water cleaning systems, like a water main break. In that instance we’ll get a boil water notice until the system has been flushed and cleaned.

31. In general, nation-wide, tap water is completely safe to drink. Some places tap water may have a strange flavor due to the underlying geology or due to disinfectants added to the water supply–but it’s rare that tap water is dangerous or unsafe.

    And in the few places where water quality fails to meet the EPA’s relatively high standard for tap water quality–rarely does that water become dangerous to consume. When it does, however, that local community often gets a “boil water” notice or a “use bottled water” notice until the problems are fixed. ([Example from 2022.](https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2022/11/28/boil-water-notice-issued-for-the-entire-city-of-houston-after-water-pressure-dropped-due-to-power-outage-officials-announce/))

32. Our tap water comes from deep artisian wells. It is ranked number two in the nation. (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)

33. I can, but my area made international news back in 2014 because we couldn’t use our water [due to toxic algae blooms](https://www.npr.org/2014/08/03/337476329/toledo-residents-told-cut-off-from-water-after-tests-revealed-toxins). The water is supposedly safe now, and I’ve been drinking/using it in the years since without any obvious issues, [but the problem is still with us](https://www.wtol.com/article/news/local/toledo-water-crisis-9-years-later-lake-erie-algal-bloom/512-3acb4d17-b6b3-425c-90be-b0d661b16999) in the sense that the local news still talks about how bad the algal blooms are expected to be each year.