Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Massachusetts > Boston
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 09-07-2009, 02:21 PM
 
36 posts, read 111,935 times
Reputation: 19

Advertisements

Is the tap water in Boston (I live in Brookline) safe for drinking if I brita-filter it? Or do many people purchase bottled water or something? I'm not sure how clean/un-clean the water here is!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 09-07-2009, 06:42 PM
 
Location: Boston, MA
3,961 posts, read 5,704,017 times
Reputation: 4709
Tap water in Boston comes from Quabbin Reservoir and is safe to drink unless you are in an old decrepit building with rusted pipes. I think you will be fine. I don't know where Brookline gets their water but I assume also from Quabbin Reservoir.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-07-2009, 07:28 PM
 
Location: Brookline, MA
613 posts, read 2,298,785 times
Reputation: 365
I've lived in Brookline for over two years and have been drinking the tap water the entire time. It tastes fine and I haven't had any health issues I use the Brita pitcher too, but I'm pretty lax about changing the filter when I'm supposed to, so it's more about using the pitcher to keep the water cold in the fridge rather than any actual filtration. I did the same when I lived in the Boston city limits and never had any problems there either.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-07-2009, 11:53 PM
 
108 posts, read 568,457 times
Reputation: 69
we boil water all the time in Boston
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-08-2009, 11:02 AM
 
Location: Sverige och USA
702 posts, read 3,003,759 times
Reputation: 419
Google Boston tap water and you'll be surprise. Boston tap water is well regarded. There were even taste tests done with national bottle water.

The only problems come not from the water itself but through the pipes (old or contains lead, etc.)
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-08-2009, 03:43 PM
 
2,439 posts, read 4,799,423 times
Reputation: 3061
I read that Boston was one of only four public water districts in the whole country that has been excused from filtering its water supply (under federal Safe Drinking Water Act requirements). That seems fantastic and incredible, so maybe I'm wrong. New York (City) is one of the others. In both cases the reservoirs are in remote, pristine locations, and the watersheds are carefully managed to minimize impurities. Filtration is a no-brainer for cities like Philadelphia, which takes its water right out of the dirty Delaware river, but a lot of places have seemingly clean sources. Anyway, any municipality that's on the Mass Water Resources Authority (MWRA) system has Quabbin water. There are exceptions in the immediate area, like Cambridge, which has a reservoir you can see from route 128, and Winchester, which has three reservoirs in the Middlesex Fells reservation; but Boston and many nearby cities and towns are on the MWRA system.

Brita-filtering can make the water taste better and removes lead which you may have depending on the pipes. A lot of people think that public water supply water is more carefully regulated and dependably safe than bottled water, and that the whole bottled water phenom of the past 25 years is a big scam.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Massachusetts > Boston

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top