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People with experience working in and around municipal water infrastructure: Do you drink tap water? Are there times when you do not? (lemmy.world)

submitted 8 months ago by j4k3@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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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.

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[–] EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

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.)

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like UV and reverse osmosis are better, but if your city is already purifying it's probably overkill. From my very quick research it sounds like it's a good option only if your local tapwater is currently failing, which honestly some american towns and cities are. In that case - go for it, but if you're city is passing, then it sounds like you're purifying already perfectly safe to drink water.

https://www.forbes.com/home-improvement/home/reverse-osmosis-water-pros-cons/

[–] EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 7 months ago

I guess what I'm concerned about is if the current purification methods used by my city is not good enough. By that I mean they do all the stuff they should be doing, but by not doing reverse osmosis or UV they let some things through that can hurt you.

I'm worried that by doing everything BUT those latter two, the city could be putting me and people I care about at risk.

Are you saying this is an unreasonable worry? Am I understanding you correctly?