Cities with the Cleanest Water
The best water areas and how to get clean water in your home regardless of where you live
Have you ever wondered, “What is the quality of the tap water in my area?” Water is essential in our daily lives, with everyone drinking, eating, and bathing in it every single day. Having clean water accessible from faucets at any given time in your home is important and is achievable even if you don’t live in one of the cities or states with the cleanest water. In this article, we’ve compiled a list of the regions with the highest rated water quality–however, don’t fret if your home state or city isn’t on this list because Antunes Water has solutions with everyone home in mind to help.
Cities with the Best Tap Water
The source of where the water is coming from is important when determining cities with the best tap water. The type of body of water your city sources their water from can make all the difference in terms of smell, taste, and color. While many groups use a variety of different criteria for ranking water quality, these U.S. cities have some of the “cleanest” water.
Silverdale, Washington
Silverdale’s water comes from an aquifer in Green Mountain.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City’s Water comes from man-made lakes. It is then filtered and treated with ozone.
Louisville, Kentucky
The water comes from the Ohio River and is filtered through sand and gravel.
Macon, Georgia
The source of water to Macon is the Javors Lucas Lake. The Macon Water Authority’s water treatment facility is larger than some of Georgia’s cities.
Memphis, Tennessee
The water comes from underground and has few minerals.
States with the Cleanest Water
While many of the same elements affect states’ and cities’ water in the same fashion, some states have access to different water sources that can impact their water quality. Oceans, of course, have lots of salts, minerals, and dirt due to rivers picking them up as the water ‘runoff’ moves to the sea. Additionally, ground water, pumped from underground, is water that has percolated through the ground, dissolving minerals as it moves. Lakes and reservoirs may come from rain or streams that have not percolated, so they often have less minerals. With that being said, here are some of the states with the cleanest water:
Oregon
Most of Oregon’s water comes from their Bull Run Watershed, proven to be one of the least contaminated naturally-occuring watersheds in the entire country.
South Dakota
This state consistently meets EPA quality requirements with 95% of the population drinking water that passes all EPA standards for cleanliness and accessibility.
Minnesota
As the “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” Minnesota has access to a vast network of natural water resources, in addition to ample government assistance to help with the cost of water suppliers.
Massachusetts
While this state’s water testing standards are some of the strictest in the country, their watersheds are kept protected by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and kept clean by the abundant–also protected–forests covering the state.
New Hampshire
Led by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, this state’s drinking water standards are strict, ensuring that regular testing, including detection of the toxic PFAS chemical, is conducted.
What’s Affecting Your Water
Whether you’re in one of the cities with the best tap water or not, when determining if your area has “clean” water, it’s also good to think of what the water contaminants in your area might be and where your water is sourced from. Even if your home’s water is sourced from a ‘clean’ body of water, there are tons of pollutants that can cause contamination.
Agricultural pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers like nitrates are often found in rural farm areas. Manufacturing and industrial areas may have chemical pollutants, both from surface waters and ground water sources, due to leaching through the soil or spills .Natural pollutants like radioactive minerals and arsenic are found naturally in the ground. Some pollutants may require special water treatment systems to be most effective. All these pollutants can contaminate your home’s water. Regardless of where your water comes from, Antunes Water has the water treatment solutions that will treat your water for a variety of contaminants and deliver the water quality you’re looking for.
How to Verify Your Home’s Water Quality
You can’t verify that your water is safe to drink by looking at it. Water can appear clear, free of debris, and have no odor, yet still be unsafe to use because it could contain disease-causing bacteria. Water must go through a reliable water treatment purification process, usually by a municipality, to be considered safe. Additional filtration may be needed to make the water taste good. This is usually done at the point of use.
Treatment plants make water safe by treating for microbiological pathogenic contaminants, but they don’t always make the water taste fresh. In fact, treatment plants add chlorine to help keep the water safe, but that can make the water taste unappealing. For those living in a city or state with the cleanest water, an Antunes Water Whole House Treatment System can still reduce chlorine, as well as other flavors and odors to ensure your water has a clean and simple taste, like water should. Water treatment systems are also like an insurance policy that help protect you from unknowns should something happen to go wrong at the water treatment plant.
The Consumer Confidence Report
The Consumer Confidence Report (CCR), or Water Quality Report, is a report from your local municipality produced by water treatment plants to verify the cleanliness of your community’s water system. Each municipality must complete their water quality report by July 1st of each year and contain items related to the USEPA Primary Drinking Water Standard to ensure everything is in compliance and addresses certain health concerns. You can find your local CCR at EPA.gov, or you can try your city’s website and search for the Water Quality Report under Public Works or Utility Reports.
The water quality report contains information on the source of your drinking water, the treatment processes used to treat your water, any regulated contaminants and their level of detection, and health effects from those contaminants, and any additional educational statements deemed necessary for the report. Municipal Water Quality Reports don’t often show hardness, because it’s typically not a health concern. To find your water hardness, you may need to contact your public works department.
Antunes’ Comprehensive Water Analysis Kits
Testing your water is the only way you can ensure the health of your home’s water. The most important thing to remember is that any tap water can be treated to be safe and good tasting with the proper filtration equipment, regardless if you do or don’t live in one of the states with the cleanest water. Filtration, softening, and reverse osmosis technologies all come into play to make any tap water the highest quality and best tasting water. Easily test your water with a Home Tap Water Test Kit from Antunes Water. Our water analysis tests analyze these factors:
Alkalinity
Arsenic
Cadmium
Chromium
Color
Lead
Mercury
pH
Turbidity
Potassium
Silver
Sulfate
Thallium
Zinc
Aluminum
Barium
Silica
Calcium
Conductivity
Fluoride
Magnesium
Nitrate/Nitrite
Selenium
Tannins
Strontium
Total Hardness
Antimony
Beryllium
Chloride
Copper
Iron
Manganese
TDS (Total Dissolved Solids)
At Antunes, our Water Analysis Kit provides homeowners with a complete technical analysis that covers the critical water factors other tests miss – paired with expert insight and recommendations from our water scientists. All water samples are tested by an EPA-certified independent laboratory so you can trust the results and know you have the best game plan to get your water quality to a level you’re comfortable sharing with your family.
No matter if you have the luxury of living in one of the states or cities with the best tap water or not, you can still get clean, ultra filtered water from any faucet in your home with an Antunes Water Whole House Treatment System. Visit the complete series of Antunes Water products or start with a Home Tap Water Test Kit to start the process of getting the clean water you deserve today.