Originally published 2021. Updated September 2026 with current research and drinking water guidance.
Why water quality deserves more attention
Water is foundational.
We drink it. We cook with it. We make coffee with it. We wash our produce in it. We bathe our children in it. Depending on where you live, you may interact with the same water supply dozens of times every single day. In fact, if achieving at least 64 ounces of water ingestion per day, every day, a person will take in over 23,000 ounces of water per year. By that rate, we will have consumed over one million ounces of water by our 50th birthdays. This doesn’t even factor in our use of it for bathing, laundry, and cleaning, which according to the US Geological Survey, accounts for 80-100 gallons per day on average.
And because water is such a constant exposure, I think its quality deserves a lot more attention than we tend to give it.
Most of us turn on the faucet, see clear water coming out, and assume that means it is clean.
But clear water is not necessarily contaminant free water.
This is not meant to make you afraid of your faucet. Municipal water treatment has been incredibly important for controlling waterborne diseases and making large public water systems possible. But there is a big difference between saying water meets regulatory requirements and saying there is nothing in that water worth paying attention to.
Where your water comes from, how your municipality treats it, the contaminants present in the source water, the pipes carrying it to your house, and even the plumbing inside your own home can all affect what eventually comes out of your faucet.
And many of the contaminants we are talking about cannot be seen, smelled, or tasted. That is why I think water is one of those foundational areas where it makes sense to be informed.
What’s really in our water?
Oftentimes, when we think of the need for clean water, we think of the need within less developed countries. However, even the “clean” drinking water that flows from the tap contains sometimes invisible contaminants that can pose risk to our health. Consider this:
- There are many contaminants that are not filtered out of public water utilities, including medication that is flushed into our wastewater (whether from discarding pharmaceuticals or excretion through urine) or leached into our water tables.
- Water is disinfected, most often with chemicals that can leave potentially carcinogenic byproducts behind.
- Water travels through pipelines to get to your home, picking up contaminants along the way.
As Dr. Frank Lipman, Function Medical Doctor & NY Times Best Seller, wrote in his article on MindBodyGreen, “according to the EWG’s investigation, at the time of this writing, roughly 85% of the population was drinking tap water that contained over 300 contaminants—more than half of which were not regulated by the EPA. Add to the mix an ever-growing list of new chemical compounds that come online just about every day, and well, the water will probably only get murkier over time.”
You can check out the contaminants in your water on the EWG’s Tap Water Database.
Let’s take a look into some of the most commonly found drinking water contaminants:
Your water has to be treated. But treatment has tradeoffs.
Before we go further, I want to make something really clear: disinfecting municipal drinking water is important.
Untreated water can carry bacteria, viruses, parasites, and other pathogens capable of causing serious illness. Chlorine and other disinfectants have played an enormous role in making community drinking water safer.
But there is another side to that process that I think we should understand.
When disinfectants such as chlorine react with naturally occurring organic matter in water, they can form compounds known as disinfection byproducts. These include trihalomethanes, or THMs, and haloacetic acids, or HAAs. EPA regulates several of these compounds because long term exposure above established standards may increase health risks. These harmful effects include endocrine disruption, cancer, respiratory problems, congenital abnormalities, and food allergies.
So when I talk about filtering chlorine or disinfection byproducts from drinking water, I am not arguing that municipal water should not be disinfected.
We absolutely want dangerous microorganisms controlled.
What I am saying is that once the water reaches my home, I personally do not feel the need to continue consuming every chemical that was necessary to treat it along the way.
Fluoride deserves a conversation
Fluoride is widely accepted to strengthen tooth enamel and prevent cavities and tooth decay. During the 1930s, prompted by a prominent problem with oral health, scientists began to look at the relationship between tooth decay in children and naturally occurring fluoride in drinking water. In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan was the first to add fluoride to its city water. Since, hundreds of cities have started community water fluoridation. In fact, 73% of Americans are served by community water systems with fluoridated water.
Recent research reviews have raised concerns about fluoride exposure, particularly in children.
However, fluoride has also been a suspected neurotoxin, supported by a 2016 NTP systematic review on its effect on animals and a 2019 meta-analysis. It is potentially linked to developmental delays in children as well as cognitive issues in adults, even at the accepted levels in municipal water sources. Its ties to endocrine disruption is also a major concern.
In addition, fluoride and bromide compete with iodine levels in the body, which can contribute to impaired iodine absorption and iodine deficiency. Note: Evidence shows that increasing your iodine consumption can replace and therefore help detox other halogens – specifically fluoride, chlorine, and bromide.
For my own family, I prefer being able to control our fluoride exposure rather than receiving it automatically through our water.
The water can leave the treatment plant clean and still pick up contaminants before it reaches you
This is something a lot of people do not realize.
The quality of the water leaving the treatment facility is only one part of the equation. That water still has to travel through miles of pipes before it reaches your kitchen sink, and then it moves through the plumbing inside your own home.
One of the biggest concerns here is lead. Lead can enter drinking water when pipes, fixtures, solder, or service lines containing lead corrode. This is particularly important in older homes and older communities, where lead plumbing materials may still be present.
But metal plumbing is not the only material worth thinking about.
Many water systems and homes also use plastic piping, including PVC and CPVC. Like any material that sits in contact with drinking water, plastic plumbing has the potential to transfer small amounts of chemicals into the water. Modern drinking-water components certified to NSF/ANSI/CAN 61 are specifically tested to make sure chemical migration stays within established health-based limits.
Older PVC is a different story. EPA has documented that PVC water mains manufactured before 1977 could contain higher residual levels of vinyl chloride, which could then leach into drinking water. Vinyl chloride is a known carcinogen, and EPA’s drinking-water goal for it is zero.
There is also the issue of stagnation. Water that sits inside plumbing for long periods has more time in contact with pipes, fittings, and fixtures. Research has found that chemical migration from some plastic piping can vary depending on the pipe material, manufacturer, temperature, disinfectants in the water, and how long the water remains stagnant.
All this in consideration, the treatment plant is not the last thing your water touches before you drink it.
The distribution system, service line, household plumbing, fittings, and fixtures all become part of the final water-quality picture.
And again, you cannot necessarily tell any of this by looking at your water.
Your water can look completely clear. It can taste completely normal. And contaminants from plumbing can still be present.
This is one reason I think home water testing can be valuable, especially if you live in an older home, have older plumbing or service lines, use a private well, or simply want to know what is actually coming out of your kitchen faucet.
PFAS have become one of the biggest concerns in drinking water
Another reason I wanted to update this series is that the water conversation has changed significantly over the last several years.
PFAS are a perfect example.
PFAS stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a large group of synthetic chemicals that have been used in products such as stain-resistant fabrics, nonstick coatings, food packaging, industrial applications, and firefighting foam.
They are often referred to as “forever chemicals” because many of them break down extremely slowly. Over time, PFAS have made their way into soil, groundwater, and drinking water supplies.
And these are not fringe contaminants that only environmental health circles are talking about anymore.
PFAS have become significant enough that federal drinking water standards now specifically address several of these chemicals. What makes this particularly concerning is that we are talking about concentrations measured in parts per trillion.
It does mean that these compounds are worth knowing about, especially because they are persistent, widespread, and incredibly difficult to detect without testing.
“Within legal limits” is not always the only question I want to ask
Drinking water regulations are important. We need standards, testing, and accountability for public water systems. But regulatory limits are designed for large populations, and they also have to take into account things like available technology, feasibility, cost, monitoring, and implementation.
That does not make those standards meaningless. It just means that “Is this amount legally allowed?” is not the only question I want to ask as a mom or dietitian.
I also want to ask, “If this is an unnecessary exposure that my family encounters every single day, and I can reasonably reduce it, do I want to?”
For me, that answer is often yes.
Some exposures deserve more attention because of how often we encounter them, and water is one of the biggest examples. It is something we drink, cook with, and use every single day, which is exactly why I think it is worth being thoughtful about.
So what should you actually do about your water?
The goal of this conversation is not to make you anxious every time you fill up a glass of water. It is to help you become more informed about something you and your family are exposed to every single day.
A good place to start is simply by learning more about your local water. Read your Consumer Confidence Report, look at what has been detected in your area, and pay attention to the age of your home and plumbing. If you have an older home, a private well, known contamination issues nearby, or you simply want a clearer picture of what is coming out of your faucet, home testing can be a helpful next step.
From there, you can make a much more informed decision about filtration. Not every water filter removes every contaminant, which is why I do not think the answer is to buy whatever system happens to be popular online. Some filters are great for reducing chlorine and certain organic compounds but do very little for fluoride. Others may be effective for lead but not address everything else you are concerned about.
The better question is not, “What is the best water filter?” It is, “What am I trying to remove from my water?”
Once you know that, choosing the right filtration system becomes much easier. I walk through the different options, what they are designed to remove, and how to think through what makes the most sense for your home in Part 3 of this series.
What about bottled water?
One of the first questions people ask after learning more about tap water is whether bottled water is a better option.
Unfortunately, it is not that simple.
Bottled water comes with its own set of questions around source water, processing, packaging, plastic exposure, and environmental waste. One of the biggest concerns that has gained more attention in recent years is microplastics.
Rather than trying to squeeze that entire conversation into this article, I devoted Part 2 of the series to it. We will look at what microplastics are, how they end up in drinking water, what we know about human exposure, and why reaching for bottled water may not be the simple clean-water solution it appears to be.
Clean water is one of the places I think we can make a meaningful difference
We cannot control every environmental exposure, and we are never going to eliminate every chemical from our lives. I do not think trying to create a perfectly toxin-free environment is realistic or healthy.
But water is different because of how often we interact with it. We drink it every day. Our children drink it every day. We cook with it, bathe in it, and may be exposed to the same contaminants over and over again for years.
That is why I think it is reasonable to ask what is in your water, test when it makes sense, and reduce the contaminants you do not want your family exposed to day after day.
You do not have to eliminate everything to make a meaningful difference. You can simply make informed choices about the exposures you have some control over.
And clean water is very high on my list.
Continue the Clean Water Series
Part 1: How Clean Is Your Drinking Water? What to Know About Common Tap Water Contaminants
Part 2: A Look at Bottled Water and Microplastics
In Part 2, we look more closely at bottled water, plastic packaging, microplastics, and why bottled water may not be as simple of a solution as it appears.
Part 3: Water Filtration at Home
In Part 3, we move from understanding the problem to choosing a solution by looking at different filtration methods, what they are designed to remove, and how to decide which option makes the most sense for your home.
