In 2013-14, a total of 42 drinking-water-associated outbreaks caused by infectious pathogens, chemicals or toxins were reported to the CDC from 19 states.
The reports do not include lead contamination.
"The number of drinking water outbreaks has increased from 32 in 2011-2012," said Kathy Benedict, lead author of the report and an epidemiologist in CDC’s Waterborne Disease Prevention Branch.
Legionella caused more than half — 57% — of the outbreaks, 88% of the hospitalizations and all 13 deaths, according to the CDC.
"So if these bacteria are in there and don’t get properly treated before they leave the plant … then the bacteria grows again and causes the people in the farthest regions of the distribution system to become contaminated and to become ill," Subra said.
During the same 2013-14 time frame, 15 outbreaks associated with an environmental exposure to water contaminated with harmful pathogens, chemicals or toxins were reported to the CDC by 10 states.
An additional 12 outbreaks caused by undetermined exposure to contaminated water were reported by eight states during the 2013-2014 period.
"So you have chemical contamination and bacterial contamination that you weren’t looking out for historically that are also now contaminating the water and causing severe health impacts to the community."
"It’s really up to the citizens to be able to identify what’s going on with their drinking water source."
If people think their water may be contaminated, they should "absolutely" test their own water, she added.

Some remote Australian communities have access to drinking water for only nine hours a day for part of the year, but these households can still use up to ten times the average of urban households.
Many communities in the Torres Strait Islands have their mains water supply limited to nine hours a day during the week, and 16 hours a day at weekends, during the six-month dry season from May to October.
Some remote Aboriginal communities in mainland Australia have similar restrictions.
The challenge, therefore, is finding ways to manage this unsustainable water use, apart from physically turning off the water.
The data revealed an average daily use of 900 litres per person, rising to more than 4,000L per person per day in some cases.
We then broke down household water use into categories such as showering and outdoor, and discussed water use habits with each participating household.
We found five key drivers for this high outdoor water use (aside from leaks): dust control (and flea control) from non-surfaced roads and yards cooling down (watering the house roof and bare earth or concrete driveways to create an evaporative effect) washing down boats and fishing or hunting equipment physical amenity (gardening or greening) social amenity (having a continuous source of tap water was an important resource during social gatherings, including sorry camps, tombstone openings, cultural events and extended family gatherings).
Reducing drivers of high water use In urban areas, outdoor household water use is often described as “discretionary”.
Our team, together with the participants and local service providers, trialled a water efficiency pilot program.
This involved both residents and local councils learning about the importance of conserving water and offering suggestions on ways to do this.

AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Wash. – Fairchild Air Force Base officials said they will now cover the city of Airway Heights’ cost of clean drinking water up to $700,000.
Then on May 16, the city and Fairchild Air Force Base notified thousands of families of widespread contamination.
But for now, a newborn child that I’m bringing into the world, I just put her in risk’s way,” Taylor explained.
This sparked the Air Force to start testing groundwater around each of its bases.
It is believed the contamination started at an old, former fire training site at Fairchild in what is called the ‘burn pit.’ It is no longer being used and it has not been used for years.
If you think about it, May of 16, the EPA came out with 70 parts per trillion, and in less than a year, we moved out with how we were going to mitigate,” Samuelson said.
But again, the military continued to use the foam until it was no longer available.
Samuelson said Fairchild, like most other bases, did not quit using AFFF until 2015, when the EPA declared 70 parts per trillion as the safe limit for drinking water.
Samuelson said he has never shied away from tough questions or criticism from the Airway Heights community.
In fact, he was often the one answering questions at Airway Heights public meetings at the height of the city’s water crisis.

People living in the town of Vlaardingen, west of Rotterdam, have been told to boil their drinking water after water company Evides said it had found evidence of E. coli bacteria in samples taken from several different locations.
Locals have been told to boil drinking water for three minutes to make it safe, but there has been a run on bottled water at supermarkets, broadcaster RTL Nieuws reported.
‘We are bringing in massive deliveries because our clients have the right to clean water,’ supermarket manager Nico van der Elst told RTL.
In total, 70,000 people have been affected by the scare.
The problem is expected to last three days.
While most strains of E.coli, which is found in the intestines of people and animals, are harmless, some can cause diarrhea, urinary tract infections, respiratory problems and other illnesses.
Restaurants and cafes are also working hard to make sure they can still serve their customers.
‘We can’t use our normal coffee maker,’ Daan, from café De Hofnar said.
‘So our customers can’t have cappuccinos.
We’re improvising but there are worse problems in the world.’

BUCHAREST (Romania), November 7 (SeeNews) – The European Commission said on Friday it is providing 17 million euro ($19.6 million) to Romania to improve access to drinking water.
The financial support will be directed to four major projects in Constanta, Ialomita, Gorj, Ilfov and Suceava counties, the European Commission said in a press release.
"Ensuring access to quality drinking water is a concrete example of European solidarity, which will bring benefits to a large number of Romanians.
With the new investments in cohesion policy, citizens from Romania and across Europe will have access to clean water, the result being protecting both their health and the environment," Corina Cretu, European Commissioner for regional policy, said.
The Commission will invest 2.5 million euro in Constanta and Ialomita counties, for the completion of the rehabilitation and extension of the water management and distribution infrastructure in 19 communes.
Some 24,000 inhabitants will benefit from the improvement works.
A further 7 million euro will finance the completion of works from the water distribution and collection network in the urban agglomerations of Gorj county.
Some 2.8 million euro will be used to complete the renovation and extension of the water distribution and sewerage network in eight urban areas located in Ilfov county, near the capital Bucharest.
In September, the Commission provided some 284 million euro to Romania to finance projects for modernisation of water infrastructure in twelve counties.
($=0.8646 euro)

This warning applies to approximately 100,000 customers in the following municipalities: Click here for a complete map.
Bring all water to a boil, let it boil for one minute, and let it cool before using, or use bottled water.
Boiling kills bacteria and other organisms in the water.
Turbidity may indicate the presence of disease-causing organisms.
These people should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers.
The symptoms above are not caused only by organisms in drinking water.
To ease inconvenience, Pennsylvania American Water has water tankers available at the following locations: Bethel Park Community Center: 5151 Park Ave, Bethel Park, PA 15102 Jefferson Hills Borough Police Department: 925 Old Clairton Rd, Jefferson Hills, PA 15025 South Fayette Township Library: 515 Millers Run Rd, Morgan, PA 15064 South Park Township Library: 2575 Brownsville Rd, South Park Township, PA 15129 Upper St Clair Community & Recreation Center: 1551 Mayview Rd, Upper St Clair, PA 15241 Customers should bring their own containers when visiting a tanker for drinking water.
What happened?
Pennsylvania American Water is collecting and analyzing additional water quality samples, including bacteria samples.
For more information, visit our Web site at www.pennsylvaniaamwater.com, and select Alerts Notification, or contact Pennsylvania American Water’s customer service center at 800-565-7292.

When water gets contaminated, it can make people severely ill and malnourished.
Without renewable fresh water, these countries rely on imported bottled water.
Women and girls often bear the brunt of the water crisis.
In rural Indian and African communities that divide labor along more traditional gender roles, the responsibility often falls on women to provide for their family.
In Africa alone, women spend 40 billion hours a year walking for water.
We can change that.
But this isn’t just a problem experienced by people abroad — many communities in the U.S. also live without clean water.
“…data CNBC obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency reveals that only nine U.S. states are reporting safe levels of lead in their water supply.
Every bit goes a long way toward helping a family have access to water.
When they don’t have to spent hours searching for it, they can focus their energy on other critical things like education.

In addition to routine systemwide inspections for lead and other toxic materials in their drinking water, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which together deliver water to more than 4 million Bay Area residents, also conduct lead tests for individual households, upon request.
San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission performed water quality analyses on 211 household faucets this year and taps from Jan. 2 to Oct. 17.
By far the most heavily contaminated sample, taken from a bathtub faucet, registered 698 parts per billion.
Across the Bay, EBMUD rolled out a program in March that allows customers to apply for a voucher for a certified lab to test their water at no cost.
Since the program began, 70 tap tests have been conducted and none were found to contain lead levels above 15 parts per billion.
In 2014, the agency also analyzed the taps at 55 of its customer’s homes as part of a scheduled water quality testing program required under federal regulations.
In all, 99 percent of those tests revealed lead levels below 15 parts per billion, and 90 percent were below five parts per billion.
Lead can cause a grim array of short- and long-term health problems, including brain and nervous system damage, anemia and hypertension, when enough accumulates in the body.
Since 2000, California law has required that all kitchen faucets sold in the state must be “ultra-low lead.” According to the SFPUC, most faucets purchased prior to 1997 were made of brass or chrome-plated brass containing up to 8 percent lead.
When replacing plumbing fixtures, the utility also recommends selecting products certified by the National Sanitation Foundation as being “lead free.” In homes with older plumbing systems and fixtures, experts also suggest flushing taps for up to two minutes before drawing water for cooking or drinking to clear away any water that might be contaminated.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly two billion people don’t have safe drinking water.
Not only a problem for developing countries, water across the world is contaminated with pollutants that treatment plants are not prepared to filter.
Water Pollution Threatens Your Health Pollution is not only affecting the health of humans, but also plants and animals on which we depend for our food supply.
And more than 80 percent of wastewater contaminated by human waste is discharged into rivers and oceans without any pollution removal.
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey collaborated with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and tested streams across the U.S., looking for 719 organic chemicals in 38 different sources.
This is an abject failure by the EPA, including members of Congress charged with overseeing the agency, and every American should be outraged by this inaction.” US Government Policies May Increase Your Risk While more than half the world is drinking water contaminated by pollution – whether animal or human waste, agricultural runoff or pharmaceutical products – proposed federal regulations would likely loosen standards and drive water and environmental pollution to even higher levels.
It’s executive orders that are threatening the safety of our drinking water for 117 million Americans.” The changes to environmental policy of this administration make it highly likely water pollution, affecting both the health of the environment and the people drinking it will only increase, triggering far more damage in the coming years than can reasonably be anticipated now.
Water pollution and filtration in countries where people are forced to gather water from streams and wells increase the risk these sources are polluted with feces and other pathogenic contaminants.
Although clay pots are an effective means of primary filtration when water treatment is unavailable, additional home filtration is often necessary, even when tap water is delivered to your home from wastewater treatment plants.
One of the best types of filters uses a three-stage filtration process – micron sediment pre-filter, a Kinetic Degradation Fluxion water filter and a high-grade carbon water filter.

TRENTON, NJ — New Jersey has become the first state in the nation to set stringent standards for two chemicals that are found in the public water supply and have been linked to various health concerns.
DEP has accepted the recommended drinking water standard of 14 parts per trillion for PFOA and 13 parts per trillion for PFNA by New Jersey Drinking Water Quality Institute, a panel of the state’s leading drinking water experts.
Over the years, New Jersey’s water companies and have cooperated in testing for chemicals such as PFOA and PFNA, which are classified as contaminants of emerging concern but are not regulated by maximum contaminant levels (MCL).
These systems have taken a variety of actions to address the contamination, including installing treatment systems, increasing monitoring and taking wells out of service.
A study conducted by the DEP in 2006 found PFOA present at very low levels in a majority of the public water systems that were tested.
New Jersey was the first state to conduct such a statewide study and it resulted in the DEP setting a guidance level for water systems to follow.
This expanded into broader statewide DEP investigations of PFOA, PFNA and related chemicals in water supplies.
The company has installed point of entry treatment systems on dozens of impacted off-site private wells in the area.
Various types of PFASs, including PFOA, have also been used in foams used for firefighting and training, particularly in specialized firefighting foams at airports and military bases.
DEP and Drinking Water Quality Institute are developing a health-based standard for perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), another of the chemicals found frequently in these foams.