After the New York Times expose on toxic waters earlier this year and frequent reports of traces of other stuff being found in drinking water, you might wonder what's really in your tap water. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) just released their analysis of over 20 million records from municipal water supplies and found 315 different types of pollutants in tap water, many of which aren't regulated.
From their research EWG created a tap water quality database of 48,000 communities in 45 states so you can find out what you're drinking. They also ranked 100 cities to find the top 10 cities with the best water, which includes Austin, Boston, St. Louis, Minneapolis and Providence, Rhode Island and the 10 cities with the worst water, which includes Pensacola and Jacksonville in Florida along with San Diego, Las Vegas, Houston and Riverside, California. New York City is ranked either 13 or 41 depending on whether the water comes through Jamaica, Queens or the Catskill/Delaware area.
So should you stop drinking tap if you live in one of the worst cities? We don't think so, but EWG suggests filtering it. EWG thinks it's time for the federal government to assess drinking water quality nationwide and establish new safety standards to protect this precious resource so we don't have to worry about what's coming out of our tap.
Photo by malla_mi on flickr under a Creative Commons license.
From their research EWG created a tap water quality database of 48,000 communities in 45 states so you can find out what you're drinking. They also ranked 100 cities to find the top 10 cities with the best water, which includes Austin, Boston, St. Louis, Minneapolis and Providence, Rhode Island and the 10 cities with the worst water, which includes Pensacola and Jacksonville in Florida along with San Diego, Las Vegas, Houston and Riverside, California. New York City is ranked either 13 or 41 depending on whether the water comes through Jamaica, Queens or the Catskill/Delaware area.
So should you stop drinking tap if you live in one of the worst cities? We don't think so, but EWG suggests filtering it. EWG thinks it's time for the federal government to assess drinking water quality nationwide and establish new safety standards to protect this precious resource so we don't have to worry about what's coming out of our tap.
Photo by malla_mi on flickr under a Creative Commons license.
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