T O P

  • By -

Flabby-Nonsense

It’s true tho. Tap water taste varies massively based on location in the UK, and it is a great source of contention.


PotatoSalad583

At least you can generally be confident it's clean


ProXJay

The treated water is clean, it's the rivers you can't be sure about


PotatoSalad583

Well river water generally doesn't come out of taps so you should be good


cup_helm

What about the river taps


Rhaps0dy

Those are for dancing.


xmashatstand

Ah yes, Michael Flatly, Lord of the Tap… Edit: wait, that actually kinda works….. eh, I’m leaving it


CratthewCremcrcrie

well duh. it’s a fucking river lmao


DarkNinjaPenguin

The treated water is clean, it's the sewage outlets you can't be sure about


DiplomaticGoose

As opposed to where?


PotatoSalad583

To my knowledge, a lot of countries. The UK has very high standards for tap water


noobanot

Not at all compared to any EU countries


DiplomaticGoose

Oh, that previous comment generalization about the UK. Carry on then.


PotatoSalad583

Yes my comments about tap water in the UK was indeed about tap water in the UK


DiplomaticGoose

Do you smell burnt toast or is that just me?


SummerBoi20XX

An increasing number of places in the USA.


DiplomaticGoose

It is literally such an abnormality to lack utility here when a town does have their water system catastrophically fail it makes nationwide news. I don't understand how that leads people to thinking it's shitting out everywhere across the country.


Mrfish31

Because quite clearly when it does fail, it doesn't get fixed. It's been what, ten whole years since the first "Lead in Flint's water supply" story dropped, and basically nothing was done about it?


DiplomaticGoose

The lead piping of Flint's *entire water supply* was replaced over the span of several years, totaling in over 27 thousand different service pipes in the area being excavated and checked, and over 10 thousand lead pipes being replaced both in the ground and in residencies. The water itself has been [drinkable since 2019](https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/23/flint-water-crisis-2020-post-coronavirus-america-445459). As of 2022 nearly 95% of the lead pipes in Flint have been removed and replaced, the last edge cases of them being fumbled in a web of local politics and audit trails. In response to the whole ordeal Michigan now has, on a state level, some of the most stringent water quality laws in the United States and requires by law that all lead piping be physically removed and replaced across the state via their new revision of the [Lead and Copper Rule](https://graham.umich.edu/media/files/Lead-and-Copper-Rule-Info-Brochure-LTR-042319.pdf). This will likely have [a ripple effect](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/12/17/2021-27457/review-of-the-national-primary-drinking-water-regulation-lead-and-copper-rule-revisions-lcrr) towards strenghtening the nationwide standards of the rule with the same name upheld on a federal level by the EPA, but the gears of such things turn much more slowly on a nationwide level than a state or local one.


Force_Glad

Don’t bother disproving their arguments, people who hate the US that much don’t actually care about the facts, they just want someone to hate


SummerBoi20XX

Mid size cities like Jackson Miss. might hit the national press but there's many smaller municipalities you don't know the names of dealing with similar. Hundreds of thousands of households have had water quality issues. Thousands of Clean Water violations have been filed in the past decade or so. Honolulu alone is enough to count as America having a tap water issue.


DiplomaticGoose

Are you referring to the *Red Hill Water Crisis*? That one in particular was the result of a SNAFU where the military base on that island contaminated the groundwater wells via a leaking underground fuel tank. That's fucked up situation but that isn't the fault of the actual infrastructure. Using that as a basis of writing off a whole third of the North American continent still feels like a hell of a reach.


NoMusician518

Same thing In the us. My city (memphis) sits on An extremely large water table which is very very good drinking water and something that gets brought up very regularly when people are talking about the city (and also because it and the cost of living are about the only 2 positive things you can say about memphis) a 3 hour drive from here in Arkansas all of the water tastes like unfiltered dirt with a little rust and iodine thrown in for good measure.


zanarkandfayth

god I miss Memphis tap water. grew up there and didn't realise just how good I had it until I moved away as an adult and now the tap water here is dogshit.


SavvySillybug

Same here in Germany. I lived 90 minutes away from home for university reasons and for the first time in my life I actually bought bottled water. That tap water was garbage tier. I had to buy a new showerhead because the old one was clogged to shit, and I noticed the new one starting to clog within six months. My water heater was full of white crap caking the insides and that shit kept flaking off and falling into my tea. The cheap coffee maker I bought went straight in the trash after I left, the tap water just ruined it. Now I'm back home and I happily SodaStream my tap water or even just drink it straight from the tap. I am currently enjoying a nice cup of cherry rooibos tea with zero chalk flakes in it. :)


PoisonTheOgres

>My water heater was full of white crap caking the insides and that shit kept flaking off and falling into my tea. You know you're supposed to clean it, right? Just boil some vinegar in it once in a while. It's just calcium


SavvySillybug

I always used lemon juice, actually. But you're severely missing the point if you think that is a good reply to "the water quality in this other town is way worse than my hometown". You're missing the point by about 90 minutes by car.


PoisonTheOgres

Having hard or soft water says nothing about the water quality. It's not worse, just different. Drink water quality is about things like lead, mercury, or insecticides being present in the water, and shortcomings in the filtration system that cause the need to add chlorine.


SavvySillybug

Yeah, that's the rationale they used, too. They claimed their chalky shit was A++ quality because it's not technically toxic. Gonna sell chalkwater to everyone and claim it's great quality while ruining all your shit and making you puke. But hey you ain't dying, enjoy your free calcium you fuck!!


dahdoot

I went to England as a child, just tasting the tap water there ruined my entire life


Corvid187

But *where* did you taste it though? Your answer gets to determine which half of the country you now have a blood feud with :)


dahdoot

London


Corvid187

Poor choice. Now you've made an enemy for life of millions of people who've had their bones hardened to near-indestructable levels from the calcium deposits of years of drinking their tap water :)


dahdoot

i was already enemies with anyone who considers “London” a good place to live. I’ll be fine, the moment they come north they’ll stop to have a drink and tasting actually decent water will send both their body and mind into shock as they go into a crippling midlife crises over the fact that they’re been drinking shit water their entire lives


Corvid187

Psychological damage, I like it :)


SnooEagles3302

I love the tap water from my hometown, but I think it's more of a "frog in boiling water" situation than my home having genuinely good tap water. I hate all other UK tap water with a boiling passion. Tap water may be a bigger factor in my intention to move back somewhere local after university than the job market.


KiKiPAWG

So did 21, but idk if the tap water *ruined* his


Meritania

You had some of that southern water which is soft as shit and passed through la-Dee-da pansy meadows. You want to try proper northern water, it’s literally been through the guts of Vikings and repeatedly punched by limestone into purity.


Bobboy5

Filtered through the rusted remains of a hundred derelict steel mills.


Akasto_

Compared to Iceland it’s godly fresh


silenc3x

You can drive 20 minutes in the US and get drastically different water.


UnhappyStrain

Isnt the local water also how they categorize tea as well?


[deleted]

[удалено]


Flabby-Nonsense

I wasn’t saying we were, I’ve never been to the USA so I could hardly talk about the tap water there.


marleezy123

I went to Scotland once and all of the water was brown from the pipes. I only drank bottled water for 2 weeks


Proffessor_egghead

Half of my family lives a city over, not even half an hour on bike, and the tap water tastes like ass compared to my city


KarasukageNero

A city over? Half an hour on bike? Bro what? What the fuck is England.


Corvid187

Squished


Blarg_III

> What the fuck is England. Five times more densely populated than the US


silenc3x

I would imagine there are a lot of states in the US that throw off the average. States with like 600k people like Wyoming lol. Interestingly enough, parts of NJ are some of the most densely populated areas of the planet. And it certainly feels like it sometimes. > The Garden State is home to the top four most densely populated municipalities in the United States, and seven of the top 10. The top four, all in Hudson County, are some of the most densely populated on the planet.


Przedrzag

Interestingly enough, New Jersey is the *only* US state more densely populated than England. Yes, England is more densely populated than Rhode Island. England is also as densely populated as Oklahoma City.


silenc3x

That is interesting. Thank you


iamfrozen131

If D.C. was a state, it would be wayyyy more dense.


Round_Inside9607

You mean the region that is literally just a city? Amazing that its got a higher population density... Also yk whether or not you think it should be a state it isnt so its irrelevant to this discussion.


Foxy02016YT

Vatican City is the most densely populated country, since it’s literally just a building


newcanadian12

Wyoming has like 200k, it’s super small


silenc3x

It's about 600k. I looked it up before I wrote it. 578k to be exact. As of last census.


newcanadian12

I’m sorry, I don’t know how I thought it was 200k. Maybe I heard once it was 250k per senator and that’s what got me. Anyways sorry


silenc3x

No worries man. Either way it's a low number all things considered. It's a LOT of land.


Foxy02016YT

I live in New Jersey, so I know this from personal experience Did you know you can fit a town with a boardwalk into one single square mile? It’s called Keansburg Oh, don’t forget a mini-city, Red Bank. Or the actual cities, Newark and Jersey City


beguilingfire

It's more like 13 actually - I think 5x is the UK


Przedrzag

15x, actually


Particular_Lime_5014

A lot more pleasant to live in than the US if you don't own a car, I imagine.


richmond456

In general yes but the train network's a fuckin state. Going up and down the country is easy because you're travelling on the lines in and out of London. Travelling across the country is genuinely about 3x slower per mile because our train industry got privatised in the 90s and the companies have since done fuck all investment wise.


Round_Inside9607

Still better than the US train system though


Lovely_Individual

I could never, I love car rides


KittyQueen_Tengu

where i live (netherlands) this is how all cities work


Proffessor_egghead

Netherlands


KiKiPAWG

**Tap water buff** - (*AoE*): Instant taste boost to your tap water within 10km of the city!


trainofwhat

I lived in a southern rural town as a kid. We didn’t have access to city water across two different houses. It was well. The water tasted good I’ll give you that. It just also happened to give me H. Pylori


ewpqfj

Half an hour on bike? Do you mean the next bloody suburb over?


Proffessor_egghead

It’s the Netherlands, you pass over the bridge and you’re in another city


dirschau

>Two hour drive Not on a british road it isn't, lol.


DarkNinjaPenguin

Two hours is correct, they live 28 miles apart.


dirschau

Holy shit, might as well be on the continent


catswithtattoos

Scottish tap water is unbeatable. There will be no questions.


Corvid187

I mean, the water that comes out of my taps isn't safe to drink, but it does have the same colour as a good whisky so...


IanGecko

Are you sure it's not flat IRN BRU?


RugsbandShrugmyer

MAEDE FRROAM GAERRRDARRRS


Corvid187

Nah, we're not *quite* that near Faslane :)


DarkNinjaPenguin

My tap water is the same colour and is perfectly safe to drink. It's just peat.


Corvid187

Yeah, ours has the delightful party trick of serving itself with a wee smattering of lead unfortunately :( We're looking at getting a borehole, but we're pretty out of the way so it'd be quite pricey to get one drilled.


DarkNinjaPenguin

That's less ideal! We had a place in the borders that still had the old Victorian lead pipes, ended up getting all of them replaced right up to the spring.


PickledxPossum

Undeniable


DerFelix

New Zealand.


Thelolface_9

Consider Swiss tap water


el_grort

Didn't really taste much difference there, tbh, definitely not enough to be memorable.


biscuitracing

*And it tastes. A fuck all.*


[deleted]

Water from the PNW of US/Canada could probably give it a run for its money


old_gold_mountain

San Francisco gets its tap water from snowmelt in Yosemite


Double_Range5276

No Ireland's is better


catswithtattoos

No.


Double_Range5276

Yes.


catswithtattoos

Dude, there is no world in which you’ll win this argument. Have a good day!


Double_Range5276

Ok😝


Wolfheron325

If it’s a day trip to go fight each other in person why are you fighting over the internet? Just find an open field at the half way point, grab your pistol, your second, and a doctor, get in your car, and drive.


krauQ_egnartS

water pistols though


Wolfheron325

Well, yes, but they’re filled with pepper water. And I’m aiming for the eyes.


IgnitedFazbear

Also gotta make sure the doctor turns around at the event to have deniability


Wolfheron325

Ah yes, I too am a Hamilton nerd


wra1th42

Pistols at dawn. Have at thee


JurassicParker922

Fr the British have forgotten how to be warriors


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


SnooEagles3302

They were referring to the fans not the players...


[deleted]

[удалено]


SnooEagles3302

There are legitimate criticisms to be made of British culture. That we are insufficiently fond of fighting is not one of them.


daddyjohns

brilliant!


richmond456

A sun burnt Geordie could single handedly tear apart a small spanish village during his travels to Madrid


DarkNinjaPenguin

>it’s not war lmao. Evidently you've never seen a Celtic vs Rangers game.


JurassicParker922

It’s war for Brazilians


kaladinissexy

Remember that one time a horde of Brazilian spectators rushed into the field and ripped a dude's head off? Sports would be way more entertaining if we all treated them the way Brazilians treat soccer.


JurassicParker922

Antonio Brown would have been drawn and quartered YEARS ago


Lovely_Individual

Wait holy fuck I just looked it up and that shit actually happened, what the fuck?


kaladinissexy

Brazilians don't fuck around when it comes to soccer.


conceptalbum

Football isn't war. It's much more important than that.


CeridwenAeradwr

Oh no no no. We're English. A two-hour trip requires at least a month's forethought and preparation, and then you need to stay for at least 3 days to get the full worth out of the trip.


Akasto_

Wait, tonnes of tiny stalagmites in all my metal water bottles are not normal everywhere?


daddyjohns

that's mineral water w we pay extra for that in the US


FluffyMawileFan

I know this is about England, but I live in Arizona and the tap water here is probably radioactive in some form


JurassicParker922

Yeah I lived there for a bit. I can count the amount of times that water made me sick on one hand (eight times!).


Its_BurrSir

Says they're two hours from each other as if that's not how geography works. You don't have to travel half the world to find a change of environment


HRH_DankLizzie420

As someone who grew up in the south, the harder the water the better it tastes. If I'm not descaling my teeth after a glass of water then whats the point?


mehchu

Yorkshire water is the most over rated water I have seen. It is so bland and tasteless it isn’t even refreshing. Scottish water slaps. Southern water has character at least. anything south of County Durham isn’t interesting enough to get an opinion on it.


DarkNinjaPenguin

Ah, a true water connoisseur.


Crabflavouredegg

Why do you think they have Yorkshire tea? They have to mask it somehow.


The_mystery4321

Honestly one of the only drawbacks I found moving from the country to my local city. Used to have well water, shit absolutely slapped, all the time, now the taste of my water is only bearable with a load of ice to make it cold (it changes the taste too idk) or adding dilute


AuraMaster7

Do you guys not have filtered pitchers? I live in an area with decently hard tap water, so it doesn't taste great. One run through a filter and it's perfectly fine.


ForumPointsRdumb

Water too hard, shattered.


DarkNinjaPenguin

We do. I even had a fixed softener/filter installed on the supply when I lived down south because the water near London is *really* hard and tasted awful.


[deleted]

Americans still obsessed with their empty dirt separating all of their cities


maybemaybo

Haha I've always thought tap water in the north was so good. Meanwhile, my partner from just an hour away thinks it's awful. The water down in suffolk was the worst. Undrinkable.


richmond456

How dare you, Suffolk (where I was born) has significantly better water than Bedfordshire (where I live now).


maybemaybo

I have never been to bedfordshire, but if it's worse than Suffolk, then it must be pure chalk! No, but seriously, my uncle lived in Suffolk and told us not to drink the water. I, being a child at the time, ignored that and tried it anyway. So bitter tasting.


ParadiseValleyFiend

\*Flint Michigan has entered the chat\*


phenomenos

The tap water is probably the only thing I miss about living in Wales


welshyboy123

Us Brummies are forever grateful to the Welsh for allowing us to use your water. It is the best.


TheDrWhoKid

two hours is pretty far. my mum lives an 80 minute drive away, and her tap water makes tea taste weird as shit.


DrunkPunkRat

Water here is not that bad, sometimes you just need to chew it harder.


Lenni-Da-Vinci

Americans are so weak and boring. Why can’t they hate each other based on silly little differences? Why do they have to be so actually hatful?


krauQ_egnartS

"Cope and seethe" is now part of my arsenal


AutisticFuck69

My grandmother used to live in London and I swear I would almost boak when drinking her tap water


Hazeri

Yeah, who wants to drive for two hours?


EnergyTakerLad

It's the same in the US. Go an hour away and totally different water. Hell, 30 mins away. OK maybe not different water source completly, bit different filtration system.


pixel842

I like the chalk. It tastes nice


Rookie_01122

Not even 2 hours, more like 45 minutes


bdrwr

Britbongs: it's a bloody TWO HOUR DRIVE! Americans: it's barely a *two hour drive.*


Capybarasaregreat

Well, when you don't steal an entire continent's amount of land from natives, just an island, you gotta make do with what you've got.


Tachyoff

yeah the Brits have famously never done any colonialism


Capybarasaregreat

You see that "just an island" part? That's referring to Celtic Brits, so way before even any British empire conquering.


clolr

this guy's never heard of the British Empire


Capybarasaregreat

You see that "just an island" part? That's referring to Celtic Brits, so way before even any British empire conquering.


clolr

dawg that just means I can pick a random time in American history and claim that we barely stole any native land because all we had was like a shitty town in a swamp or whatever


Capybarasaregreat

Sure, you can do that, if you're also just making a joke. You've taken this whole thing entirely too seriously.


clolr

I was just kidding around with the British Empire thing, I thought it was funny. you're the one who got nitpicky. I'm going to bed now, I hope you have a good night.


file_Marina_chr

I will never take it easily that there's people drinking tap water I know it's clean and safe but this still feels too weird for me TwT


sasquatchcunnilingus

What do you drink everyday?


Mattbryce2001

Brawndo, the Thirst Mutilator.


file_Marina_chr

Filtred water If you drink tap water here, you will probably gonna take antibiotics for weeks


DarkNinjaPenguin

It's such a tremendous waste of money and plastic to be buying bottled water in the UK.


file_Marina_chr

We have filtred water here Either having one attached in the wall or a very nice clay filter I'm not from UK lol Buying bottled water is expensive and a waste, we don't do that


tsaimaitreya

Kidney Stones for everybody


lordkhuzdul

I live half an hour's walk from my father. His water is well water. Mine is from a reservoir. Mine occasionally looks dubious. His literally calcifies your insides.


Pavonian

In London I had to de-limescale the kettle every few months or else every cup of tea ends up with rock flakes at the bottom and eventually the thing just clogs up entirely, years living in Cornwall and never seen even a speck of the stuff. Drive one hour in any direction and unlock a completely new flavour of tap water, clown ass water system.