I just learned that today is World Water Day. It's one of those pseudo-holidays where you're supposed to be aware of and think about a certain aspect of our world. So, to honor that, I decided to check out exactly how polluted the water that comes out of San Francisco taps are by visiting the National Tap Water Quality Database and plugging in my info for a complete report.
For some strange reason, though, San Francisco is NOT one of the gazillion California cities included on the water database. So I looked up neighboring Oakland instead. And here's what I found out:
Oakland's tap water is provided by the East Bay Municipal Utility District, and contains 18 contaminants including five that push us over the health limit--bromate, bromodichloromethane, chloroform, dibromochloromethanes, PCBs, and TTHMs.
Despite the fact that it includes all these methanes and acronymed chemicals that I can't spell, Oakland still technically has "no violations" of national water safety standards. Scary. That's why I only drink orange soda and coke.
National Tap Water Database [Environmental Working Group]
