Drinking Water Safety

Report Outline
Increasing Concern Over Tap Water
Development of Public Supply Systems
Efforts to Guarantee Water Purity
Special Focus

Increasing Concern Over Tap Water

New Evidence of Dangers in U.S. Drinking Water

Safe drinking water threatens to become almost as scarce and costly a resource as petroleum in the not-so-distant future. In the United States, where public water supplies are generally acknowledged to be among the best in the world, new evidence indicates that tap water quality is deteriorating. Many Americans already know that their drinking water looks dirty, smells funny and tastes bad—but few realize that some of it actually may be dangerous to their health.

Drinking water may be contaminated by bacteria from improperly treated sewage, or chemicals from industrial pollution or farm pesticides. It might harbor elusive and persistent disease viruses. Or it may contain hazardous trace metals from manufacturing wastes or corroded water pipes. Even water which has been through elaborate public treatment plants often bears such contaminants when it reaches the home faucet. Outbreaks of waterborne diseases, though infrequent, have not been eliminated. Moreover, the long-term or cumulative effects of drinking, cooking and washing with impure water are not well understood.

“Overconfidence or apathy seems to pervade the public's attitude with respect to drinking water,” Dr. J. H. Lehr, executive director of the National Water Well Association, told a Senate committee in 1972. “Common daily experience, plus a current myth about the future, falsely implies that the quality, safety and adequacy of our municipal water supply systems are above reproach. Perhaps the myth can be stated as follows: ‘Everyone knows that we have launched a massive water-pollution-control effort and that waterborne disease outbreaks are a thing of the past.’ This statement is simply not true…”