[Nepeta]

Not everything dissolved in water is deleterious: horse farms are concentrated around Lexington, Kentucky because the calcium in the water helps build horse bones.

Maybe there are some slack towns that test their water 4 times a year, but for cities of any size, I'm certain they do chemical and microbial testing all year. It would be not wonderful if 500,000 people got sick from tap water.

Private labs doing water testing are another story. I worked at one (briefly) that cut corners, used improper equipment, improper procedures, and generated useless results.

I drink tap water every day.

[dsrtsage]

In colonial times, it was all whiskey and beer, as the water was not safe to drink. I say we go all colonial.