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Comment by solids | Hacker News Reader

This is nice! However I don’t think it’s very accurate to put a number to a whole country, when even the health of the pipes in your own house or even in your neighborhood can affect the quality a lot.

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I agree. Our tap water in Portland, Oregon is superb. But when I travel to other states, like California, I'm not sure how they can drink their tap water. At least in Southern California it tastes bad and has the distinct smell of chlorine. Though I suppose if you live with it 24/7 you might get used to it and not notice the taste.

Even California tap water varies immensely depending on where you are. SoCal is generally bad, which is probably related to most of their water being imported. My hometown, on the other hand, is in the Sierra's and fed by spring water that's pretty identical to the Crystal Geyser water they bottle a few mountains down. San Francisco has pretty great water too, though they did flood what was reportedly the most beautiful place in California to secure it.

Funny you'd say, I live in Portland, Oregon, and we do not drink the water, except after filtering or heating. We think we've seen enough negative reporting on the water quality, even if it's just touchy-feel reporting about the dead birds in the uncovered water treatment basins. To us, the water doesn't even taste as good as maybe in, say, the Netherlands. Yes, chlorine taste at times.

Indeed. My mom lives on the other side of town, and has her water delivered by a different water source/plant than my home is. Her water is noticeably worse than mine, a lot more chlorine taste.

Water at my place is very good though, almost as good as some of the best bottled water, and way better than mediocre bottled water.

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