Plugging the leak on laundry pollution

Joaquim Goes, an ocean biochemist at Columbia Climate School's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, had to look twice when he first saw the tiny strands of fiber floating in a water sample from the Hudson River. An expert in ...

US announces tough tap water standards for 'forever chemicals'

US President Joe Biden's administration on Wednesday announced the first nationwide tap water standards to protect the public from toxic "forever chemicals" linked to serious health harms ranging from cancers to developmental ...

How AI is clearing the waters in urban rivers

Researchers have developed a new machine learning system to improve the accuracy and efficiency of sewer-river system models. This innovative approach, detailed in an article published in Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, ...

What can we learn flying through the plumes at Enceladus?

In the next decade, space agencies will expand the search for extraterrestrial life beyond Mars, where all of our astrobiology efforts are currently focused. This includes the ESA's JUpiter ICy moon's Explorer (JUICE) and ...

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Tap water

Tap water (running water) is part of indoor plumbing, which became available in the late 19th century and common in the mid-20th century.

The provision of tap water requires a massive infrastructure of piping, pumps, and water purification works. The direct cost of the tap water alone, however, is a small fraction of that of bottled water, which can cost from 240 to 10,000 times as much for the same amount.

The availability of clean tap water brings major public health benefits. Usually, the same administration that provides tap water is also responsible for the removal and treatment before discharge or reclamation of wastewater.

In many areas, chemicals containing fluoride are added to the tap water in an effort to improve public dental health. This remains a controversial issue in the health, freedoms and rights of the individual. See water fluoridation controversy.

Tap water may contain various types of natural but relatively harmless contaminants such as scaling agents like calcium carbonate in hard water and metal ions such as magnesium and iron, and odoriferous gases such as hydrogen sulfide. Local geological conditions affecting groundwater are determining factors of the presence of these substances in water.

Occasionally, there are health concerns regarding the leakage of dangerous biological or chemical contaminating agents into local water supplies when people are advised by public health officials not to drink the water, and stick to bottled water instead. An example is the recent discovery of potentially hazardous nitrates in the public water supply in Phoenix, Arizona.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA