Ordinary faucets are Americans’ primary sources of freshwater. Your family drinks it, cooks with it, showers in it and brushes their teeth with it. Much of that water carries toxic organisms and chemicals. You’re using it every day, and it’s unusual to get any warning.
The federal government’s standard for tap water allows for three times as much lead as what bottled water can legally contain. But even when the EPA gets a report that a water utility has violated the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, the agency is unlikely to do anything. The EPA took action on just 13 percent of the 80,000 reported violations in just one recent year.
The nonprofit Environmental Working Group maintains a tap water database that tracks 91 contaminants linked to various types of cancer.
Drinking fountains in many schools still use lead pipes. According to Environment America Research & Policy Center, more than more than 70% of schools tested in the United States have confirmed lead contamination in their drinking water. This affects children from families of every race and economic background.
The EPA updates a list of water contaminants that it regulates every five years, and a class of more than 5,000 man-made chemicals known as PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl) finally got its attention in 2024. But it’s unclear how long it will take water utilities to regularly report their contamination levels. PFAS “forever chemicals” are resistant to heat, water and oils. That makes them ideal for the non-stick coating in a frying pan, but impossible to remove from the natural environment after industrial, military, and firefighting operations release them.
According to the EPA, PFAS are linked to decreased fertility and high blood pressure in pregnant women; low birth weight, accelerated puberty and behavioral changes in children; reduced response to vaccines; interference with the body’s natural hormones; and increased risk of prostate, kidney and testicular cancer. If your tap water contains PFAS, according to the Rhode Island Department of Health, boiling it can make it worse. That’s because the escaping steam shrinks the amount of water in your pot, but the PFAS chemicals stay behind – so that 8 oz. glass of water will be more contaminated.
This can be problematic if your local government tells you to boil water before drinking it.
Instead, the Rhode Island agency says, you can “reduce your risk of exposure to these chemicals by using bottled water,” or by making sure the water your family drinks comes from a source that’s tested for PFAS before it reaches you. That information, however, is often hard to find.
How bad can contaminated tap water get? Here are some of the most egregious examples.