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San Francisco Bay Area tap water is safe to drink and is held to a lot higher safety standard than bottled water. Also the source of most bottled-water is no di

San Francisco Bay Area tap water is safe to drink and is held to a lot higher safety standard than bottled water. Also the source of most bottled-water is no different than the source for tap. Bottled-water is often priced at a 2000%+ markup. http://sfwater.org/index.aspx?page=447 http://sfwater.org/index.aspx?page=447 https://www.quora.com/Is-San-Francisco-city-tap-water-safe-to-drink https://www.quora.com/Is-San-Francisco-city-tap-water-safe-t...

fleitz 9y ago
It also tastes like crap. In Vancouver the tap water tastes as good as bottled. The only thing better is fresh from a mountain creek.
- qq66 9y ago
  Most bottled "spring water" is tap water that is pumped in a few yards away from the "spring" and then bubbles up, legally now "spring water."
  - KGIII 9y ago
    I don't believe there's any legal requirement for that. I know there is no legally required notification of the water's source, as that was a bit of a debate topic locally and just a few years ago.
tylersmith 9y ago
Just a couple of weeks ago people in Alameda couldn't even bathe in the tap water. That's not a great testament to the quality of bay area water. https://alamedaca.gov/wateralert https://alamedaca.gov/wateralert
- Animats 9y ago
  That affected about 230 homes who were not EBMUD customers. It's fixed now. Somebody connected an irrigation well to the potable water system. (Agricultural areas often have both non-potable and potable water systems. Stanford does, incidentally. Stanford has a private water system, with Felt Lake as a reservoir. It's mostly used to irrigate the golf course and lawns.) [1] https://alamedaca.gov/waterfaq https://alamedaca.gov/waterfaq
bradlys 9y ago
Sure. Safe to drink but most Bay Area water tastes damn awful. I can’t stand drinking tap water in the Bay unless it is ice cold. Some bottled water tastes bad too. Getting the stuff that isn’t bottled anywhere near california always seems to taste better. I use a 6 stage water filtration system and it is a life saver. I didn’t drink water regularly at all in the Bay until I had that. Still don’t drink much water at most restaurants here... I’m not a defender of bottled water but let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that all bottled water is equal to tap water. Especially SF tap water. It definitely isn’t. Some actually tastes decent.
- simcop2387 9y ago
  What filtration system do you use? I've got the same problem in the L.A. area and wouldn't mind checking something out (a simple brita filter doesn't do much for it).
  - m_mueller 9y ago
    Why don't Japanese style water tap filter systems [1] get popular in the west? These things are incredibly convenient and cheap - your tap water now tastes good, the upfront cost is ~35 USD and the running cost is at most around 3 USD per month. Hell of a lot cheaper and easier than buying water bottles and transporting them around. [1] http://gd.image-gmkt.com/li/089/310/525310089.g_0-w_g.jpg http://gd.image-gmkt.com/li/089/310/525310089.g_0-w_g.jpg
    - Symbiote 9y ago
      I've seen these around Europe. Also, a larger version where the filter is under the counter. America != The west.
      - m_mueller 9y ago
        Well I'm from Europe and I haven't. Where have you seen them more specifically? In Switzerland they don't make a lot of sense (good tasting water, but very calcium-heavy which these AFAIK don't help against). But e.g. in France and Italy I think it would make a lot of sense, the water there is AFAIK safe but tastes awful to me.
orthoganol 9y ago
I wouldn't be so sure, within the last year it's now "Hechy Hech mixed with groundwater", you may have seen the pre-emptive advertising on buses when they rolled it out. My feeling is that it is probably worse than it used to be.
ilyagr 9y ago
San Francisco's tap water is pumped from Yosemite. It tastes great to me. There now enough water there for all of the Bay area, so in many municipalities (e.g. Sunnyvale, I think) water tastes terrible.
- ilyagr 9y ago
  In case you haven't seen this before, worth a look: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetch_Hetchy#Hetch_Hetchy_Project https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetch_Hetchy#Hetch_Hetchy_Pr...
  - toephu2 9y ago
    "Water from Hetch Hetchy is some of the cleanest municipal water in the United States; San Francisco is one of six U.S. cities not required by law to filter its tap water, although the water is disinfected by ozonation and, since 2011, exposure to UV.[58] The water quality is high because of the unique geology of the upper Tuolumne River drainage basin, which consists mostly of bare granite; as a result, the rivers feeding Hetch Hetchy Reservoir have extremely low loads of sediments and nutrients."

fleitz 9y ago

It also tastes like crap. In Vancouver the tap water tastes as good as bottled. The only thing better is fresh from a mountain creek.

qq66 9y ago
Most bottled "spring water" is tap water that is pumped in a few yards away from the "spring" and then bubbles up, legally now "spring water."
- KGIII 9y ago
  I don't believe there's any legal requirement for that. I know there is no legally required notification of the water's source, as that was a bit of a debate topic locally and just a few years ago.

tylersmith 9y ago

Just a couple of weeks ago people in Alameda couldn't even bathe in the tap water. That's not a great testament to the quality of bay area water. https://alamedaca.gov/wateralert https://alamedaca.gov/wateralert

Animats 9y ago
That affected about 230 homes who were not EBMUD customers. It's fixed now. Somebody connected an irrigation well to the potable water system. (Agricultural areas often have both non-potable and potable water systems. Stanford does, incidentally. Stanford has a private water system, with Felt Lake as a reservoir. It's mostly used to irrigate the golf course and lawns.) [1] https://alamedaca.gov/waterfaq https://alamedaca.gov/waterfaq

bradlys 9y ago

Sure. Safe to drink but most Bay Area water tastes damn awful. I can’t stand drinking tap water in the Bay unless it is ice cold. Some bottled water tastes bad too. Getting the stuff that isn’t bottled anywhere near california always seems to taste better. I use a 6 stage water filtration system and it is a life saver. I didn’t drink water regularly at all in the Bay until I had that. Still don’t drink much water at most restaurants here... I’m not a defender of bottled water but let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that all bottled water is equal to tap water. Especially SF tap water. It definitely isn’t. Some actually tastes decent.

simcop2387 9y ago
What filtration system do you use? I've got the same problem in the L.A. area and wouldn't mind checking something out (a simple brita filter doesn't do much for it).
- m_mueller 9y ago
  Why don't Japanese style water tap filter systems [1] get popular in the west? These things are incredibly convenient and cheap - your tap water now tastes good, the upfront cost is ~35 USD and the running cost is at most around 3 USD per month. Hell of a lot cheaper and easier than buying water bottles and transporting them around. [1] http://gd.image-gmkt.com/li/089/310/525310089.g_0-w_g.jpg http://gd.image-gmkt.com/li/089/310/525310089.g_0-w_g.jpg
  - Symbiote 9y ago
    I've seen these around Europe. Also, a larger version where the filter is under the counter. America != The west.
    - m_mueller 9y ago
      Well I'm from Europe and I haven't. Where have you seen them more specifically? In Switzerland they don't make a lot of sense (good tasting water, but very calcium-heavy which these AFAIK don't help against). But e.g. in France and Italy I think it would make a lot of sense, the water there is AFAIK safe but tastes awful to me.

orthoganol 9y ago

I wouldn't be so sure, within the last year it's now "Hechy Hech mixed with groundwater", you may have seen the pre-emptive advertising on buses when they rolled it out. My feeling is that it is probably worse than it used to be.

ilyagr 9y ago

San Francisco's tap water is pumped from Yosemite. It tastes great to me. There now enough water there for all of the Bay area, so in many municipalities (e.g. Sunnyvale, I think) water tastes terrible.

ilyagr 9y ago
In case you haven't seen this before, worth a look: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetch_Hetchy#Hetch_Hetchy_Project https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetch_Hetchy#Hetch_Hetchy_Pr...
- toephu2 9y ago
  "Water from Hetch Hetchy is some of the cleanest municipal water in the United States; San Francisco is one of six U.S. cities not required by law to filter its tap water, although the water is disinfected by ozonation and, since 2011, exposure to UV.[58] The water quality is high because of the unique geology of the upper Tuolumne River drainage basin, which consists mostly of bare granite; as a result, the rivers feeding Hetch Hetchy Reservoir have extremely low loads of sediments and nutrients."