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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 7 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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[–] andrewta@lemmy.world -3 points 7 months ago (16 children)

I live in Minnesota. Close to Minneapolis. My brother does testing for swimming pools. He tested the city water for contaminates. He says do not drink it. If the level of chlorine in the city water was in pool water the pool would be shut down. It would not be safe to even swim in it. Yet the city claims it's safe to drink.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 17 points 7 months ago (12 children)

Not that I don't trust your brother who... works for the pools, but is there any data to back up this claim? The claim that, if I read right, that there's more chlorine in tap water than in the pools? Sounds like something we could easily have tested.

[–] Slatlun@lemmy.ml 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I think hey are talking about the chloramine that Minneapolis uses to disinfect. It is more stable and isn't just chlorine, so it would be in a "combined" result. The levels are page three of this report https://www2.minneapolismn.gov/media/content-assets/www2-documents/residents/2022-Consumer-Confidence-Report-FINAL.pdf It looks like 2023 isn't posted yet, but I doubt it changes much year to year.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I just learned about this, was kind of a fun dive! I just wrote up a big comment below with my findings, and you're exactly right, it's at perfectly safe numbers.

Either way, important to call out misinformation. I don't think this person did it on purpose, but their facts are definitely only partial, it took some research to get the whole picture.

[–] Slatlun@lemmy.ml 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Nice work on the write up! It is hard sorting things out when they're half true. For me, drinking water is especially important to get the fact straight on because of how bad it can go if the system fails. It would be silly to disregard anyone saying water wasn't up to a safe standard, but separating things I would care about out from the fluoride and chlorine background noise is tricky. Thanks for the deeper dive!

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 1 points 7 months ago

Thanks, yeah it can be a lot, and I think for a lot of people hearing that there's anything in the water sounds scary. It's great they publish reports monthly to verify everything

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