# Never drinking tap (public) water.. Bad? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 5, 2015, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-drinking-tap-public-water-bad/721715 "2015-06-05T15:38:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-drinking-tap-public-water-bad/721715/21 "2015-06-06T13:47:40Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > No. In most areas of the US, there’s no benefit to drinking bottled water, and in fact bottled water is often just tap water. Or worse, we have a water bottling plant in the community I live in. The City built a pipeline 30 miles up into the mountains for their tap water, the bottling plant just pumps the water out of the river here in town. But we measure rainfall here in feet, as in we only get 4 feet on the flatlands, 8 feet in the hills and 12 feet in the mountains every year, so river water is fairly pure until it reaches the agricultural areas. Except for all the plutonium, the Columbia River discharges an obscene amount of fresh, pure, mountain spring water into the Pacific. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-drinking-tap-public-water-bad/721715/22 "2015-06-06T13:55:38Z")
> [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > As far as the cost of bottled water goes, one of the local grocery chains (Meijer) regularly sells 35 packs of 16.9 oz water bottles for 2.99. I think that’s a little under 65 cents per gallon. On the other hand, tap water is about a penny a gallon. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-drinking-tap-public-water-bad/721715/23 "2015-06-06T14:32:52Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > There are two reasons a person will opt for bottled water instead of tap water: > > 1. They believe tap water will make them ill; they believe it contains “bad chemicals” or whatever. > > 2. They don’t like the flavor of their tap water. > > If the person lives in the U.S., then #1 is irrational (unless your city or county tells you otherwise). If it’s simply due to not liking the flavor, it would be much cheaper to install a water filter vs. buying bottled water. I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s germane to the conversation here: I’ve lived in places in Florida where the tap water was terribly sulfurous. If made into ice cubes, you could taste the sulfur over Coke. Blurgh. Even a filter doesn’t help much. As a result, I didn’t drink tap water until I moved to the Boston area (which has really good tap water). These days, I have a Brita, but use it for a) fussy houseguests, b) ice cubes, and c) the coffee maker. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-drinking-tap-public-water-bad/721715/24 "2015-06-06T17:58:20Z")
The best tasting water I have ever drunk was NYC tap water. Consumer Reports uses it as the standard to compare the taste of bottled water with. At home I use a Brita filter because the water here is not great. But I have finally convinced my wife not to use bottled water. My main argument is all the plastic that is wasted. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-drinking-tap-public-water-bad/721715/25 "2015-06-06T19:29:13Z")
What’s strange is the SF should have some of the nicest drinking water in the nation, coming from next to yosemite. But the pipes are so old due to incompetence and corruption, that the water often comes out tea colored and tasting nasty. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-drinking-tap-public-water-bad/721715/26 "2015-06-06T20:44:10Z")
I do also wonder about the long term health effects about drinking water stored in plastic, only, particularly on the very young. If you have no reason to avoid your tap water for your child, why would you? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-drinking-tap-public-water-bad/721715/27 "2015-06-07T01:04:03Z")
> [@HeXen](#): > > I’ve drank it all my life. I’ve had well water too, either way, when I’m thirsty I don’t care. I lived on raw untreated well water in two different places over a 12-year period. It was better than most treated municipal water I’ve ever had, and vastly better than the barely-treated sewage some cities serve up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-drinking-tap-public-water-bad/721715.md?page=1)