[abstractbill]

It is, after all, one of the nation's healthiest water supplies -- so fresh that in 2007 the Environmental Protection Agency said it did not need filtration.

Shouldn't all tap water not need filtration? Have I been assuming too much?

[barryfandango]

I think the implication was that the water didn't need treatment at the municipal level because it comes so clean from the source. Once any city water reaches your tap, it is potable and does not require extra filtration except to improve flavour. Unless you're one of those fluoride conspiracy nuts.

[ibsulon]

Go to Phoenix. It may or may not be safe, but it tastes quite foul.

[RK]

Like ibsulon said it's all a matter of taste. When I was very young, we lived on a farm and had well water. I would go to school in the city and I hated the taste of the water there. Later we moved to the city and I remember how I then hated the taste of the water at my relatives' farm house.

If given the choice between a bottle of "spring" water and filtered water, I always go with the filtered one, because I think it generally tastes better (and more like the water I drink at home). I always find the "bottled water is just tap water" meme annoying, because it generally isn't "just tap water". It's usually water that's been through reverse osmosis filtration and had added salts. That's like saying that spring water is just rain water found in your local puddle.

[jamesbritt]

I moved from NYC to Phoenix and and difference in water taste was striking. I can't drink it.

A trip back to New York last year was a real treat for the water alone.

[ctingom]

So true, I just buy water at the store for home.

[wallflower]

> Shouldn't all tap water not need filtration? Have I been assuming too much?

"If you don't use a water filter, your body is the water filter"

[jerf]

My body is on the receiving end of a billion+ year heritage of successful water filtering. That statement is superficially profound, but fails at biology.