Is it safe to drink water straight from the tap? What are objectively

>>7977373
What part of Texas?

Every city and community will have different sources and ways of treating water.

>>7977378
Houston area.

>>7977373
It's cleaner than bottle water unless your pipes are old or live near a fracking well.

>>7977388
The place that I live in was built around 2012 so I think I'm good in that area. However I live near a refinery.

>>7977395
If you're worried, just buy a decent water filter.

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>>7977388
>It's cleaner than bottle water

>>7977400
You like plastic in your water?

:)

>>7977401
sorry all the plastic in my water must be the reason im dumb enough to frogpost on /sci/

>>7977400
In the US:
Bottled water has fewer regulations than the water from your tap.

Also many (if not all) bottled water comes from municipal sources anyway.
So you're paying via taxes for the treatment, then paying a huge upcharge on them bottling it for you.

That is if you don't live in sone third world shit hole

>>7977381
Oh you're fucked. The water there is full of garbage and oil chemicals. Also you're downstream from basically everything.

Seriously though you're probably fine. Tap water is regulated by the government and they are required to issue warnings if it's considered unsafe to drink. Water filters aren't that bad though if you're worried, you can get one attached to your faucet or get those refillable containers.

Your local water provider should send out a yearly report on water quality. It should show what's in it in terms of specific chemicals in ppm and what the acceptable range is. I live in central Texas and we get all our water from the aquifers, which are plentiful in this region, so the water here is pure as fuck. I don't know about Houston though. Look at the website of your local water utility.

>>7977485
So what happened in Flint?

>>7977485
https://www.publicworks.houstontx.gov/sites/default/files/images/utilities/wq2014.pdf
2014 data. Read it and weep.
It's not that bad actually.

>>7977497
This isn't that bad either. After reading the report I feel a lot better.

http://www.cityofgalveston.org/Archive.aspx?AMID=38

>>7977493
From what I understand, the people in charge wanted to save some money by diverting water from a cheaper source without considering the consequences and completely fucked up the entire system. I believe it had something to do with ancient pipes that were full of lead and rust. It could have easily been avoided and shows terrible mismanagement on behalf of those in charge.

>>7977500
So did the city officials fudge the numbers on the water quality report? Or I guess no one cared enough to read through it.

The tap water where I am is hard and taste thick.

>>7977498
Good. I mean you never know what they might be covering up, but they're usually pretty good about these things. I believe the EPA does third-party inspections as well, periodically. Most people don't read the reports but here they come in the mail once a year and I usually look through them.
Water is generally much worse in some other parts of the country.

>>7977502
I think they just diverted the water source and when people started seeing brown liquid coming out of their taps they started to contact news agencies and it just all went downhill from there. I'm not sure if water quality tests were done on all the lines to make sure it was safe, which is gross negligence. Especially considering that the effect was literally poisoning the water for a large amount of people. Don't quote me on it, I'm sure a google search will get you all the information you might want.

>>7977507
Houston used to have really awful air and water, but I think both have been steadily improving for the last 10 years or so. The water is still far from the cleanest and the smog still makes an appearance every once in a while especially in the summer, but it's gotten a lot cleaner.

Good thing I live in a wealthy suburb far from all the refineries and shit so I hardly have to deal with any of this anyway. http://webtools.sugarlandtx.gov/sl/epub/2014wqr/index.html

Depends. It can be risky of you are running off of well water. Where I grew up, someone dumped a shit load of lead paint into our well and fucked over the local area.

>>7978294
Wow what a dick

>>7977373
unless they say its not safe than its safe lol also they can get sued for a lot of money and get in a lot of trouble if they make tap water that hurt or killed people

>>7979159
I read the water report for my city and I am satisfied. Thank you

>>7977381
Ayy H town here too! This place is full of beaners.

>>7977373
I'd be worried about tap water fluoridation if I lived in the US. You can easily check online if your tap water is being fluoridated or not if you know which state you live in, which I'd assume most non-retarded people would know.

Fluoride is fine and even beneficial in some circumstances when applied to teeth. The same can not be said for the ingestion of fluoride.

>>7979477
>>7977381
aye H town up in this bitch

what you guys do here?

Shit man we got more nignogs than anything now. ive lived here my whole life (since 88) and we got so many nigs from katrina (was in HS at the time)

>>7977373
back on topic, houston water is nasty (ive tasted worse tap water in florida desu)

i have had the same refrigerator with built in filter (change every couple years) and the water tastes good, better than my friends brita filter (and he says my water tastes like ass).

bottled water tastes bad for me too. get it tested from your facet if you are scary and contact your city for its water report (they have to take one every year)

I also used to buy bulk drinking water from whole foods (reverse osmosis and deionized) they taste okay when you store it in a glass container (as opposed to plastic) but becomes a hassle when my fridge water is just fine.