In 2022 a gallop poll revealed that 57% of Americans worry more about safe drinking water than global warming, air, pollution, or the extinction of animals! That means that clean drinking water is definitely on our minds, and for good reason. While some states have clean drinking water, other states actually warn their customers to test their tap water annually! Where does your state rank? Keep reading to find out.
It turns out that some states have pretty good drinking water while other states have water that’s just plain scary. JD Power ranked the states with the best and worst water quality and reliability. The study tracked utility customers in states with at least 400,000 customers and a minimum of 100 survey respondents. Here are the states with the best tap water:
1) Kentucky
2) Washington
3) New York
4) Oregon
5) Kansas
6) Massachusetts
7) Connecticut
8) Minnesota
9) Virginia
10) Hawaii
As you can see, Kentucky had the best tap water in the United States. The government there is well aware of this fact and has trademarked their tapwater as “pure tap.” The Pacific Northwest also faired well with Washington and Oregon making the list. New York is a surprise at number three, but that would be the upper state, not New York City, which has some of the worst water in the US. The rest of the list is a couple of Northeast states with Hawaii at number ten. Hawaii would be higher if it weren’t for deforestation and military activity.
On the other end of the spectrum, here are the 10 states with the worst tap water:
1) Alabama
2) Maryland
3) Oklahoma
4) New Mexico
5) Texas
6) Pennsylvania
7) Ohio
8) Mississippi
9) Arizona
10) Indiana
Alabama’s water is so bad that the government recommends that residents test their water at least once a year. This is because 20% of consumers have private water supplies such as wells. That makes them solely responsible for the quality of their drinking water. The city’s tap water isn’t great, so residents must be careful!
While these lists represent the best and worst states regarding drinking water quality, the truth is every single state in the United States has some drinking water quality problems. The EPA sets the limit for contaminate levels but some contaminants, like heavy metals and chloramine, are not safe to drink at any level. Also, the EPA doesn’t regularly test most tap water and instead relies on public water systems. This leads to contaminants often exceeding EPA limits. Usually, people don’t find out this has happened until residents who drink the contaminated water get sick!
So, we recommend that every household install a multi-stage water filtration system like what you find in our premium water ionizers. In a multi-stage filtration system, each stage is designed to target different contaminants. The result is that most contaminants are removed to 99.99% purity. This ensures that your drinking water is safe even if you live in a state that made the list for clean tap water.
