Risky Drinking Water

According to the EPA, In America approximately 29 million people’s tap water is not safe to drink. Many of these people live near an industrial plant or old army facility that has contaminated the groundwater. This is the case in Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Binghamton and many cities around the U.S.

This has led people to buying counter-top water filters to have clean safe drinking water, but the truth is that many types of chemicals like perfluorochemicals, trichloroethene and perchlorate cannot be removed from the water using a counter-top water filter.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identifies these unfortunate millions of American who have unsafe drinking water as living in mostly small communities that don’t have the necessary funding to treat their water. Many scared people turn to bottled water for their safe drinking water needs, but the Food and Drug Administration has the same regulations as the EPA which allows for certain levels of contaminants in the bottled water as they do for tap-water. Some unregulated contaminants by the EPA and FDA like perchlorates and MTBE which is a gasoline additive find their way into bottled water. Also, chemicals from the plastic water bottles have been proved to leak their way into the water over time.

Unlike utility customers who can request to see water testing results or who are able to view yearly water reports, bottlers are not required to release their test results to the public. Drinking water from the tap or from a bottle is a gamble in America that isn’t worth the risk.