I just dropped thirty bucks on filter refills for my water purifier. In an economy where every thirty bucks counts, is this truly a necessary expense, or would I be just as healthy and hydrated (and a little richer) if I drank water straight from the tap?
Every day more than 240 million of us turn on our faucets to drink, bathe, and cook. While I’m all for those fancy filters as an alternative to the environment-harming plastic water bottles, I wanted to find out if I’d be just as well off turning to my kitchen sink for a drink of water.
Turns out, the answer to my question is similar to the golden rule of real estate: location, location, location.
Collecting the Dirt
The National Resources Defense Council, an environmental action group, evaluated the quality of drinking water in nineteen major cities across the country, ranking them based on quality and compliance, availability of information, and source water protection. It found—brace yourself—rocket fuel, pesticides, germs, lead, and arsenic among other contaminants in many samples.
Data from consumer confidence reports compiled by the University of Cincinnati in 2006 is also revealing. In a seventy-seven area study covering the homes of about 62 percent of the population, they ranked city water by cloudiness (called turbidity), halo-acetic acids (potentially cancer-causing acids), lead, and bacteria.
Though water quality purity overall has improved, some cities, like San Jose and Des Moines, boast tap water that consistently scores high in studies and taste tests. Others, like Los Angeles and Phoenix, had such high levels of contaminants that they were in violation of EPA standards.
What does this mean? For most of us, nothing. Even the lowest scoring cities’ water is highly unlikely to make us physically ill immediately. But for the pregnant, elderly, young children, or anyone with a weakened immune system, it can pose a real health risk.
Cities with the Cleanest Drinking Water
St. Louis, Missouri: Every year, the U.S. Conference of Mayors announces a taste award for water. At the seventy-fifth annual meeting, the group of hundreds of mayors announced this city as their winner after conducting a blind taste test for clarity, aroma, and taste. Though St. Louis, like all cities across the country, still has traces of chemicals and pollutants, they are far below EPA standards—so far that local universities and retailers have pledged to stop selling the bottled stuff all together.
Des Moines, Iowa: Iowa’s capital ranked high thanks to its low levels of bacteria, lead, halo-acetic acids, and turbidity. This means that if we ever find ourselves at the Iowa Caucus sans filter, we don’t have to resort to the bottle. Forbes magazine actually ranked this Midwest city’s tap quality as the very best in the U.S.
Las Vegas, Nevada: Sin City definitely isn’t the first place that comes to mind when I think of high standards and cleanliness, but this desert oasis offers sparkling clean water along with twenty-four-hour buffets and high-roller suites. Reader’s Digest gave it a perfect score for water cleanliness, and the University of Cincinnati study found that it boasts some of the clearest H2O in the country.
