Less than 3% of the world’s water is fresh and only one-third of that is drinkable — in other words, although the Earth is mostly covered with water we can only drink the barest 1% of it. Consider that when it comes to city tap water issues.
Drinking water will frequently contain some impurities since minerals and contaminants are absorbed from surrounding structures. Some are minor contaminants, the ones that make drinking water a bit dirty, discolored, or smelly. Then there are contaminants that cause things like cholera, hepatitis, and death. Each year in developing countries nearly 2.2 million people, most of them children, die from diseases associated with a lack of safe drinking water and inadequate sanitation. That’s almost 5,500 people each day — just because they don’t have clean water.
When considering the safety of your drinking water, consider the city tap water issues and think about the activities that occur around the tap water supply. The Boise Valley and surrounding areas are prone to water quality issues. Some of our water issues are caused by the geological conditions of our area. The mountains around us contain high concentrations of minerals or toxins like arsenic and those items run down into our water supply. Other factors that affect our drinking water quality are surface water runoff and chemicals that are flushed down toilets and drains (like unused medications, cleaning chemicals, etc.)
If you live in Boise or surrounding areas, chances are your tap water source is Suez who is the largest residential water provider in the state. The majority of the tap water that gets to your house is from the Boise River. Our tap water is disinfected to protect us from bacteria and toxins before we drink it. When water goes from its natural source to the treatment facility, contaminants are removed and chemicals are added. Although this is typically sufficient for daily tap water use, it is not healthy to consume.
Nearly every water treatment facility uses chlorine as a disinfectant. Chlorine can create harmful compounds when it combines with certain organic chemicals, which may cause some health concerns. In addition to the disinfecting chemicals added, Suez also fluoridates the water we consume which also has negative health impacts.
Our tap water is safe and healthy… Right?
Most of us have heard the scary stories about contaminated drinking water in other cities such as Flint Michigan, and the fact is, we won’t know if there is an issue with the purity of our drinking water unless we are testing our tap water ourselves, and we surely won’t be told there are potential problems with our trusted water source before it is too late.
When 25 of the largest American cities were examined, only 12% of the tested cities had no water-quality violations. Tap water from all cities contained significant quantities of contaminants, including lead, chlorine, and the bacteria E. coli, one of the most common causes of intestinal poisoning.
Lead contamination of tap water is expansive and difficult to control since it generally enters the water supply via the corrosion of materials containing it. Since lead rarely occurs naturally in source water, it’s not treated at the facilities.
Atrazine is the top contaminant found in drinking water, groundwater, and surface water. It’s an agribusiness chemical (think: herbicide) that is banned in the European Union. It seems to act as an endocrine disruptor and is associated with cancer of the prostate, breast, and ovary. It has also been shown to “de-masculinize” male amphibians.
Although food is the most significant source of arsenic, tap water is the other main source. Arsenic is commonly found in industrial processing and mining runoff but also occurs naturally. Long-term exposure to arsenic is related to an increased risk of cancers as well as skin lesions such as hyperkeratosis and pigmentation changes.
Pharmaceuticals used for humans and animals are also starting to be found in drinking water. Furthermore, traces of household cleaning products, fragrances, cosmetics, and by-products of the artificial sweetener sucralose (Splenda) are turning up. Heck, even Prozac has been discovered in the fish that swim in waters around Texas.
The more serious contaminants to drinking water include:
- Improperly disposed of chemicals
- Human and animal wastes
- Pesticides / Fertilizers
- Micro-organisms such as Giardiasis
While the U.S. doesn’t keep records of who gets sick from tap water, experts have estimated that between 500,000 and 7 million people get sick from tap water each year. Because water also washes our food, our bodies, and our clothes, we probably eat and touch a lot more contaminants than we should.