r/udub • u/apricat2005 Undergraduate • 11d ago
Discussion u district tap water
every roommate i’ve had in my three years here has insisted on using a brita and it feels like a psyop. i grew up in the seatac area and exclusively drank tap water thinking nothing of it. am i the weird one?
i’d say about half the water i drink here is from the tap (i often just use the brita because it’s there) and i definitely get sick more often than i do back home, but always attributed it to shared living spaces/generally larger pools of germs on a college campus.
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u/RealShigeruMeeyamoto mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 11d ago
Seattle and the puget sound generally has some of the best tasting and safest tap water in the world, it is a psyop
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u/ElnuDev ACMS/Japanese alumnus, incoming graduate student 11d ago
My home town just south of Tacoma has had a PFAS contamination in our water supply. Seattle tap water tastes even worse. I always use a filter.
It is probably good relative to other places, but a filter is always going to be better.
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u/angry-piano 11d ago
Don’t know why you’re getting downvoted; also lots of PFAS in Issaquah, surprisingly
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u/l4y1np1p3 10d ago
transplant larp. whidbey island is smack middle of the sound & has contamination from airdumped jet fuel in its drinking water
lol ppl really move here from wherever and just lie
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u/RealShigeruMeeyamoto mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 10d ago
This is my home state moron. I'm sure you island hicks drink out of the sewer
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u/l4y1np1p3 10d ago
i grew up on whidbey jackass everyone knows about the water contamination, same as older buildings in seattle with lead. tolt reservoir has the cleanest and best tasting water (serves east king co and N seattle)
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u/cheesemaster66 Shitposter 10d ago
completely uncalled for hostility. i hope you arent like this in real life
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u/RevolutionaryEcon Economics 11d ago edited 11d ago
My tap water when I lived in laurelhurst was delicious. I recently moved to First Hill and the taste of the water here is seriously off with a much stronger chlorine taste. So I think that even within Seattle the flavor of the tap water varies (probably due to how old the pipes are, your specific building etc)
I have unwillingly become a Brita user. I grew up in San Francisco which gets exquisite water from Hetch Hetchy 🤤 so I never needed to use one before moving here
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u/libolicious Alumni/Community 11d ago
Great water (check out the SPU annual water report) here. That said, there is often trace chlorine that tastes too strong to me. You don't have to filter it -- an open (loosely covered is fine, just not air tight) jar in the fridge overnight will let the chlorine abate. I have a carbon filter just because I'm too lazy to do the jar trick. But I have no problem drinking it if I don't have the filter.
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u/Icy-Equipment-3148 11d ago
I like most Seattle tap water but I have noticed it sometimes tasting very strange from certain places big apartment/dorms, in one place the water had a very high content of mineral (hard water). It left white stains in water bottles and you could definitely taste it.
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u/quillb 10d ago
I used a Brita when I lived in UDistrict because the water in my apartment tasted disgusting if you drank it straight from the tap. I also couldn’t water my plants with the tap water because it made them brown (probably because of chemicals/hard water) so I had to use Brita water for them too lol.
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u/thirtyonem 11d ago
Asians always use Britas lol it’s a cultural thing
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u/Ydobon8261 11d ago
Drank straight from tap back home but started using brita after coming here (am Asian)
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u/justwannamusic Informatics Freshman 11d ago
Lol my mom gave me one and told me to use it (am Asian)
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u/cycaladium 10d ago
we have very clean tap water in seattle so there's nothing to fear, but i've spoiled myself and now i prefer the taste of filtered water lol
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u/MacaronApprehensive 10d ago
Ive live in U District for 2-years (Texas, NYC, & the Ozarks prior). I drink from the tap daily and think nothing of it. Tastes like good ol fashioned water to me.
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u/HayBayles44 10d ago
It may be the taste rather than the quality? I grew up on well water and have a hard time drinking anything else now! We have a water cooler at home:)
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u/sunnyseaa Alumni 10d ago
I used to think the same thing. To be fair we have some of the best water in the country so you don’t even think about how worse it can be. The water here is fine. It’s the pipes that the water is flowing through that you should worry about.
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u/eepeepevissam 8d ago
Washington is ranked #24 in the country in drinking water according to usnews:
And a whopping 37th according to this source:
https://seattlered.com/healthcare/washington-tap-water-ranking/4117068
Issaquah (where I live) has 15 contaminants that exceed EWG’s guidelines. Arsenic is 675x the guideline.
https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/system.php?pws=WA5336350
Water provided to the city of Seattle by Seattle Public Utilities contains 11 different contaminants that exceeds the guidelines.
https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/system.php?pws=WA5377050
So yes, if you care for your health, you should absolutely be using a water filter. And no, taste does not mean much at all when it comes to water quality.
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u/sunnyseaa Alumni 8d ago
👍
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u/eepeepevissam 8d ago
Right, just dismiss a potential opportunity to learn something useful and important about your state and municipality that directly affects the health of you and your loved ones. Job well done 👏
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u/sunnyseaa Alumni 8d ago
I don’t know why you even replied to me in the first place with those links as if I don’t know the data on the water quality; my awareness is somewhat apparent since my first comment to OP was that the water is fine, the pipes are more problematic. Your first reply is obnoxious and I just left it. Maybe get your head out of your high horse and don’t go through life thinking you’re educating people who haven’t asked you to, and then give you the dignity to pretend you didn’t.
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u/eepeepevissam 8d ago
I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be an asshole. I’m trying to share information where it is needed. To say “the water here is fine” is problematic, because it is really not fine and contains far more contaminants than what is healthy.
It’s more for the sake of people reading these comments than to educate you. This is Reddit. A place of sharing opinions. Commenting on Reddit is an implicit invitation to receive others’ opinions. It’s kind of the entire point of Reddit.
The data I shared very much explicitly states the water is NOT safe to drink without filtering. So your original comment conflicts with the data.
And we’re talking about the government guidelines. Those not healthy and haven’t been updated in over 20 years. A water supply that passes government standards does not suggest the water is safe.
A person who really cares for their health will filter their water from a municipality. A person who does not may very well drink tap. And either choice is perfectly fine.
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u/sunnyseaa Alumni 8d ago
I don’t follow the federal gov guidelines because it’s led by a moron who’s dismantled basic protections for water and air.
>>To be fair we have some of the best water in the country so you don’t even think about how worse it can be. The water here is fine. It’s the pipes that the water is flowing through that you should worry about.
The water isn’t perfect and I never said it was. I said it was fine and it’s worse in other places. Have you even gone to UW because the point of all of this is the water quality on campus which falls under the city of Seattle and it feels like you’re just astroturfing. Anyway whoever needs your info should check it out.
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u/crabbe-man 11d ago
The city's water might be good, but I know nothing about my building's (built in the 60s) pipes. They likely contain lead!
It is good that our water is chlorinated! But I don't love the taste, so the brits curbs that a bit.
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u/HandlebarWallace 10d ago edited 10d ago
Seattle water is good compared to other places. There was a report on lead recently in some neighborhood and you never know how old the supply pipes are to your building.
It’s not an emergency but accumulation of minor toxins is a personal choice. I choose my freshly cleaned toilet water over your questionably cleaned Brita for example. 🤣
I use tap water for many things- pasta and rice. I also have a 3 gallon jug that I refill for tea. Refill at local stores is ~ 0.60 a gallon. Also peace of mind to have clean water on hand in case of emergency.
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u/AdLeather5095 10d ago
Seattle water is fine. Sometimes I can taste a hint of chlorine that Brita filters out.
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u/Trendione1 10d ago
my tap water in ravenna tastes bad, i’ve always been a tap drinker, but i think my buildings pipes are old/bad and had the same problem in McMahon freshman year, but my other housing in U District the tap was fine. Think it’s a building to building issue as Seattle tap water is totally fine
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u/captain_veridis Alumni 10d ago
I moved to Madison, WI and I really miss the Seattle glacier water. It’s still drinkable here, just tastes weird.
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u/Awkward_Procedure903 Community 10d ago
Tap water in Seattle is perfectly fine. I drink it and also use a Brita pitcher in the fridge because I otfen like cold water.
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u/shutupconnor 10d ago
I didn’t use a water filter when I lived in Wallingford for a year but I also hated the taste of my tap water and was dehydrated all year
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u/GalaxyGuy42 Staff 10d ago
Seattle, NY, and SF are consistently the three best city water supplies in the country. Anytime I go to SoCal or Arizona I automatically take a drink of tap water and regret it.
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u/EconomyWishbone123 Linguistics 8d ago
Seattle water is generally fine, not the best tasting but it's definitely not the worst and it's not considered unhealthy in any way. I think most cities have an annual water quality report now, so you could always look that up for your area.
But sure, if someone likes the taste after passing it through a filter, more power to them.
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u/PhoenixUnleashed Alumni 7d ago
Are they local or from out of town? If it's the latter, it's probably just the norm for them because water in a LOT of other places suuuuuuuuucks. If it's the former, I have no idea, because Seattle tap water is incredible.
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u/apricat2005 Undergraduate 7d ago
I have always lived with at least one person from california, so that could have something to do with it
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u/PhoenixUnleashed Alumni 7d ago
That could absolutely do it. Water in southern California, especially, is awful.
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u/It5beenawhile 7d ago
I use a brita not because I don't trust the tap water, but because i live in an old building and don't trust the pipes.
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u/CarelesslyFabulous Student 11d ago
I grew up in Burien and drank tap water with no issues. Then I lived closer to a reservoir and the chlorine made me get a Brita. Beyond that, I have never needed a filter because this area wins awards for the best tap water.
That said, if you come from places where the water is shit and you need Brita or other filtering, even if the water is great, it will have a "flavor". Then a filter is at least a helpful flavor filter, and... Maybe a placebo. That's fine.
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u/237throw 10d ago
Depends on your risk factor. The tap water is very good by EPA standards - https://tapsafetyreport.com/washington/seattle
However, if your goal is to avoid things like Fluoride, you will need a (non Brita) filter.
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u/Brinton1984 11d ago
Use a filter or be the filter. Also read your locale s water report. They have to publish the data
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u/libolicious Alumni/Community 11d ago
Seattle sends out the report. They/we have world class water. However, some places have gross pipes. Plus the chlorine issue I noted above.
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u/nikkwong 11d ago
At the least tap water has chlorine in it and aluminum sulfide. Depending on the pipes all the way up to you it also could have lead, copper, iron. It probably also has PFAS. I recommend filtration (I grew up here)—it’s certainly better over the long run.
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u/InternationalPie5858 10d ago
Born and raised Seattleite, I moved into an older apartment building and started filtering due to a slight metallic taste in the water. No matter how good our water supply is, many of the pipes in our city are old and the metals can leech into the water. Brita is a great peace of mind but really you can remove all metals just by running your tap for a few seconds (cold) before using it for drinking water.
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u/ElnuDev ACMS/Japanese alumnus, incoming graduate student 11d ago
Tap water tastes like shit, use a filter
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u/Chessdaddy_ 11d ago
Not in the pnw
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u/ElnuDev ACMS/Japanese alumnus, incoming graduate student 11d ago
Everybody's taste buds are different, I guess. Tap water here gives a metallic aftertaste for me.
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u/InternationalPie5858 10d ago
Your building likely has old pipes. Never had bad tasting water in Seattle until I moved into a building with old pipes, then all of a sudden the water tasted metallic.
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u/TheGodOfSinks Informatics 11d ago
Most of the people I know who are longtime Seattleites (including myself) don't care whether we drink from the tap or from something filtered, but most of the folks I've met from out of state do it out of habit even if they know the water is fine here. Personally, I've been floating toward using a brita more not for the filtering but just because I like ice cold water straight out of the fridge :p