Your Water Quality
Seattle tap water is safe to drink. Local residents may wish to filter out chlorine and fluoride but drinking from the tap will not make you sick. Therefore, buying bottled water in Seattle may be less of a need than in other areas of the country. In fact, some U.S. cities are reporting contaminants found in their tap water. As a short-term solution, residents buy or are provided bottled water.
Bottled Water
In a Consumer Reports 2019 survey, U.S. consumers believe bottled water is safer than tap water. Consumers may think this because bottled water marketing capitalizes on the public’s growing concern about city water quality. This marketing leads consumers to believe water contained in plastic and labeled as ‘pure water’ is a reliable and constant source of drinking water. But bottled water is a short-term solution to providing safe drinking water.
Depending on its source, bottled water may not be a solution at all. Food and Water Watch.org reports over 60% of bottled water is actually filtered tap water. The bottled water industry giants (look at the water labels to know who they are), take tap water from several cities (not Seattle), treat it and then bottle it. Bottled water is less regulated than drinking water and could contain contaminants from its sources.
Long Term Solution
Because everyone has a fundamental right to clean drinking water, a long-term solution to water quality must be a priority. In every city and town, repairing and replacing water infrastructure must be funded. Clean local water replaces the dependency on water from other sources.
According to the EPA, there are 9 ‘very large’ systems in 2019 with serious water quality violations, and 37 that are recently compliant. (None are Seattle.) We encourage you to push for national funding for repair and maintenance of our country’s water filtration systems and treatment plants. Not only because none of us can survive without water, but also because the mistrust of tap water leads to expensive choices. See Food and Water Watch.org for some interesting articles on the Corporate Control of Water.
For more information on our nation’s drinking water, see the EPA’s Drinking Water Dashboard.
Thank you for reading! Call Raymark Plumbing & Sewer for all and any of your water filtration, plumbing, and sewer needs. 206-430-1954. We are your Seattle plumbers and we care about water.