Is the water we drink clean?
Which is safer, tap or bottled water?
The water most of us drink, including most of Cabell, parts of Wayne County and nearby Ohio, comes from the Ohio River through the West Virginia American Water plant, located at East 24th Street, Huntington.
The pipes are usually made of copper or plastic, but in very old homes, occasionally some are lead.
Although lead pipes have been outlawed since the 1950s, there are still some lead service lines (connecting water to homes), and most cities don’t know where these are.
In response to my email request on May 30, 2018, Dr. Halden replied, "City water is preferable to bottled water for reasons of sustainability and resource conservation undergoes constant monitoring and has an excellent safety track record Filters installed at the tap or under the kitchen counter can serve as an inexpensive safeguard from microbial contamination potentially introduced during travel of water in the pipes to the point of use Taxpayers already footed the bill for the water treatment infrastructure.
Personally, I use tap water, because I think it’s generally safer than bottled water, and because of the enormous amount of plastic waste that gets discarded into the environment from using bottled water.
Businesses and homes are required to ensure what they put into the sewer and eventually the river is safe, compliant with the Clean Water Act.
Huntington’s combined sewer system, carrying rain water, toilet water and industrial wastes through the same pipes, is designed to pass all the water through the treatment plant before entering the river.
When the system overflows, the excess goes through overflow pipes directly into the river or smaller streams.