Tuesday, August 28, 2007
NY Water - Is It Really So Good?
I have always heard that NYC has some of the country’s best water – but I, and I’m sure many others - chalked it up to an urban myth. However, my friend was quick to explain to me that our water supply is in fact one of the country’s best.
The Catskill Mountains’ watershed supplies NYC with its drinking water, and as a result of its integrity and undisturbed natural water filtration process, New York is one of only 5 major cities in the US with drinking water pure enough to not require purification by water treatment plants.
But is bottled water better for us than tap water? It depends. Believe it or not many brands of bottled water just slightly purify tap water. Add to that the low stringency in regulation for bottled water versus that for municipal water. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates municipal water and requires multiple daily tests for bacteria whose results are available to the public. Bottled water is regulated by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), which only requires weekly testing that doesn’t have to be publicly reported.
The Catskill Mountains’ watershed supplies NYC with its drinking water, and as a result of its integrity and undisturbed natural water filtration process, New York is one of only 5 major cities in the US with drinking water pure enough to not require purification by water treatment plants.
But is bottled water better for us than tap water? It depends. Believe it or not many brands of bottled water just slightly purify tap water. Add to that the low stringency in regulation for bottled water versus that for municipal water. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates municipal water and requires multiple daily tests for bacteria whose results are available to the public. Bottled water is regulated by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), which only requires weekly testing that doesn’t have to be publicly reported.
Labels: bottled or tap, NY, water
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