With all of the talk about the evils of bottled water (environmental costs of shipping, plastic disposal, etc.), I wanted to shift my office to using tap water (although I feel a revolt coming...). Does anyone know how I should go about testing my tap water to see if it's ok for daily consumption? Is this something that my community water supplier should do, or am I better off just testing it myself?

RiverLady,

A couple of things. One, there is a set of laws called the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). It describes the level of contaminants that are allowed in drinking water. You're municipality and the bottled water sellers must both meet those standards. The differences between tap water and bottled water are miniscule. Primarily, it has to do with taste and odor due the chlorination of tap water.

Two, go to your county water department's webite. Usually they have their annual water quality report posted there.

Three, do not try to test the tap water on your own unless you are well versed in the sampling protocols. To sample for all of the expected contaminants (metals, biological organisms, fecal matter) which are regulated costs about $300 per sample at a reputable lab.

MikeCJ

I agree with MikeCJ regarding the testing.  It's expensive and your water supplier should have the test results to show you on request.

To eliminate the problems with bottled water you mentioned, not the least of which is the cost per bottle, we replaced our point of use bottle dispensers (bubblers) with a hard piped system that looks just like the bottle dispenser, without the bottle sitting on top.  This way we eliminated the per bottle cost, transport costs, storage issues with all those bottles, and since the units have filtration built in we also got rid of any taste or odor problems.  You will of course have a one time cost of piping up these dispensers but it may be a good solution for you.  We found it to be economical, politically correct in our green company culture, and easier for maintenance.