Filtered Water: Tastes Great, Less Land-Filling

Bottled water is so last year.

Tap is back in style.

But what if swilling municipal water still gives you the willies? Is there a way to make sure what comes out of your tap is crystal clean?

The mayors of major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco are urging citizens to go back to the tap and even trend-setting restaurateurs like Alice Waters and Mario Batali are eschewing bottled water, all of which can make it seem like tap water is the new black.

With good reason.

We know that major brands like PepsiCo's PEP Aquafina and Coca-Cola's KO Dasani are pretty much plain old tap water that's been filtered. And the Natural Resources Defense Council has tested bottled water extensively, only to determine that it's no better than tap and might not even be quite as good, depending on the brand and municipality in question.

Moreover, various taste tests have shown that a lot of people actually prefer tap water to the store-bought stuff.

And there is a use-or-lose-it aspect to tap water. The best way to ensure that we continue to have potable water -- when so many around the world don't -- is to keep drinking it. Relying on public water spurs us to care about it and to keep tabs on the municipal authorities that monitor both it and the pipes it travels through to our homes.

Of course, tap water isn't perfect.

Impurities can find their way into it from time to time, despite diligent monitoring. And the EPA's idea of acceptable levels of contaminants might be more liberal than yours. In addition, if old pipes carry water across your town or city, or even through your house, they can leach metals and other things into your water. Or your local water authority might add chemicals like chlorine or fluoride, which, as Enviroblog points out, not everyone wants to drink.

The good news is that municipal water authorities responsible for testing and protecting their local supplies also have to issue an annual consumer confidence report about them. For example, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection makes its reports available online -- and it goes back a few years.

The EPA provides links to reports for municipalities around the country, and Consumer Reports even has guidelines to help you make quick sense of what is not a particularly juicy read.

If your water comes from a private well, or you have an older home with pipes that might leach lead or other undesirables, you can buy a home-test kit for a few dollars. Or you can send your water to a commercial lab--the EPA has a list of state health departments, which can put you in touch with a certified lab near you.

If your water isn't as pure as a natural spring in Fiji, or you don't like the taste of added chlorine, don't automatically assume that you're back on the bottled water wagon. Water-filter systems come in all shapes, sizes and price levels and are fashioned to target different water nuisances.

If chlorine is your primary concern, filtering carafes that you can keep in the refrigerator, such as those from Brita, made by CloroxCLX, or Pur, made by Procter & GamblePG, will do the trick. So will faucet-mounted filter systems from those companies or General ElectricGE, among others. These systems typically use activated carbon and might also remove mercury, heavy metals like lead and copper, and chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides.

According to Consumer Reports, you'll lay out $20 to $40 for the pitcher or faucet mount and up to $80 or so a year on replaceable filters -- far less than you'd spend on a bottle-a-day spring water habit for yourself.