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NYC Tap Water Might Not Be Safe


By

Jen Chung

Published Oct 6, 2004

Modified Mar 7, 2008


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By

Jen Chung

Published Oct 6, 2004

Modified Mar 7, 2008


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Coming out of our Beltway blog's neigborhood, the Washington Post reports that New York City might have been manipulated results of drinking water tests that measure lead levels. NYC isn't the only city that might have falsified results - Philadelphia, Boston, Providence, RI, and Portland, OR, are also noted. This is pretty disturbing, because if you're anything like Gothamist, we tend to opt for tap water when we're at restaurants. And we're all about the tap water at home, though with a Brita filter, which apparently does help filter out the lead. Still, we've been bragging about how NYC tap water is amongst the best in the country, especially after the city's pronouncement our water was safe last December, and now this?

You can learn more about NYC's drinking water quality from the DEP, but given this new information, who knows how accurate it is. An FDA article about whether bottled water is better than tap, and the NRDC on grading tap water in US cities (NYC isn't included). Plus DCist on DC's these tap water woes.

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Jen Chung

Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

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