EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water

Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by lelandfe on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @07:41PM (#39996848)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/3M_Contamination_of_Minnesot...

> The drinking water of 14 communities, over 170,000 individuals, and over 150 square miles was contaminated through 3M's improper disposal of chemicals

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by sp332 on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @07:00PM (#39996575)

Municipal tap water isn't worse for you than bottled water.

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by airstrike on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @07:28PM (#39996756)

It depends on the bottled water, to be fair. I suppose it also depends on where the tap is located.

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by hackyhacky on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @07:02PM (#39996585)

So you're saying that bottled water also contains PFAS?

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by sp332 on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @07:11PM (#39996637)

A lot of bottled water is literally packaged tap water. Anyway https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00431... and https://www.consumerreports.org/water-quality/whats-really-i...

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by Analemma_ on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @07:21PM (#39996708)

If you look at your bottled water, a whole lot of it has labels on it that say something like "comes from a municipal source". It's tap water sold at a 5000% markup.

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by skipkey on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @07:38PM (#39996833)

Many years ago I knew someone who managed a bottled water plant. They didn’t use tap water, they had a very deep well pulling from an aquifer. They then filtered the heck out of it, and then added back in a very small, proprietary mix of minerals.

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by hackyhacky on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @07:30PM (#39996770)

Just because it's from a municipal source doesn't mean that it isn't filtered subsequently.

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by wccrawford on Thursday April 11, 2024 @03:33PM (#40005919)

It also doesn't mean that it isn't way better than the local tap water in many, many places.

People don't buy bottled water that tastes bad, and it's pretty likely to taste worse than your local water if it's worse for you than your local water.

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by serf on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @07:34PM (#39996801)

>It's tap water sold at a 5000% markup.

it's tap water, processed, and bottled.

The processes often include extra filtration and cleaning methods that the individual corporate groups dictate.

I'm not trying to suggest that bottled water is some tremendous value compared to municipal water, but let's not pretend that the markup comes with nothing.

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by waveBidder on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @07:12PM (#39996639)

I mean, yes, the bottle itself is a source of microplastics.

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by sp332 on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @07:14PM (#39996657)

Microplastics is a different conversation.

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by xcv123 on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @07:32PM (#39996777)

Try distilling 4 litres (1 gallon) of tap water and see what is left behind.

Now repeat that experiment with high quality bottled water.

In my city (developed first world country) the tap water contains toxic repugnant chemical sludge.

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by adamredwoods on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @07:03PM (#39996592)

Which city? Tap water quality varies between cities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by ch4s3 on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @07:08PM (#39996617)

You'll notice that Flint's water is safe to drink as of 2 years ago[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis#2022

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by hackyhacky on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @07:11PM (#39996634)

I notice that the page you link does not mention PFAS at all.

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by iAMkenough on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @08:09PM (#39997041)

Which to me means "Tap water is safe and effective" is a broad statement that doesn't consider pollutants outside of PFAS, which vary depending on the regional water treatment system and how they are operated from region to region.

"safe" and "effective" means different things between different regulating bodies.

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by ch4s3 on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @09:28PM (#39997529)

That's not really what people are referring to when they mention Flint.

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by hackyhacky on Thursday April 11, 2024 @12:21AM (#39998345)

If "safe and effective" does not include testing for chemicals known to be dangerous, then the label "safe and effective" is not accurate.

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by dylan604 on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @07:40PM (#39996843)

I'm sure it is depending on the intended use. It's perfectly safe and effective to wash my car, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's safe for me to consume.

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Re:EPA Says 'Forever Chemicals' Must Be Removed from Tap Water by non-chalad on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @07:06PM (#39996602)

The purpose of a system is what it does.

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