Why I drink filtered water in NYC

Watch the full New York Times video on NYC's water towers here

While many tout the superiority of New York city’s drinking water – and some also credit it for why the city has the best pizza dough – I personally steer clear of the stuff if I can. Now first let me be clear, the tap water in NYC is completely safe to drink, so don’t go freaking out. Its transported from upstate from above ground sources, making it a lot safer than groundwater which can be contaminated by industrial processes.

"There is estimated to be over 20,000 of these tanks adorning the tops of buildings throughout the city..."

Now the reason I prefer to filter my tap water is a pretty simple one, yet seems like it does not cross a lot of people’s minds, and it has to do with the water towers. If you live or work (I do) in a building over six floors that relies on water tanks for its gravity fed water supply, then you are one of these people that should be paying close attention.

The city’s skyline is dotted (somewhat romantically) with the water towers, their purpose is to supply water to buildings over six or seven stories with water, but using gravity. There is estimated to be over 20,000 of these tanks adorning the tops of buildings throughout the city, and while common in occurrence; it seems they’ve somewhat been immune to regular safety inspections.

*warning bells*.

While the outside of these cedar clad barrel like structures might be considered quaint or even aesthetically pleasing to some, the insides tell a different story. Often filled with layers of muddy sediment or feral animals – some not having been cleaned or inspected for years – creating a toxic and poisonous environment for bacteria and virus to spawn.

In 2014, a story by The New York Times told of how they took water samples from tanks on twelve different buildings throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queen found E.Coli in five of the tanks, and Coliform – while not harmful on its own, is an indicator for the presence of “pathogenic organisms of fecal origin” in those same tanks plus an additional three.

YIKES.

E.Coli (recently in the news thanks to Chipotle) is a bacteria found in the environment, food, and intestines (feces) of animals and birds, and while many strains are harmless, some can make people – especially those with weakened immune systems like the elderly, smokers or children – sick.

How have these tanks not been identified as the culprit in some illnesses?

While the city gets dozens of 311 calls each year from residents claiming they became ill from their buildings tap water, it is almost impossible to pinpoint the water tower as the cause. As a public-health microbiologist from Yale University, Dr. Stephen C. Edberg said “It’s very hard, with a population as large and dense as New York, to even ascertain even reasonably large illness outbreaks, you’d literally have to have an entire apartment building get sick at the same time.”

How does this happen?

Well some tanks are actually not sealed off from the environment, leaving them vulnerable to rodents, birds and animals such as squirrel’s. I have personally met a super from a downtown building that knew of a nest of pigeons taking up residence in their water tank. THAT IS DISGUSTING.

City safeguards to ensure these tanks are kept in clean and working order are hard to enforce, and the safeguards protecting the water supply end and the building entrance. It is up to individual building owners to ensure that their tanks are maintained, inspected and tested annually. WE ALL KNOW HOW THAT GOES.

Even the city knows its total bs, their OWN survey suggests that nearly 60% of building owners do not comply.

AWESOME.

So while the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) annually (and rigorously) test the city’s tap water and report their findings publicly, it really means fuck all if building owners don’t step up and ensure once they have the water in their possession, it is kept in a safe and clean environment.

Severe and scary lack of personal responsibility, inspections and reporting

Because New York grew so rapidly in the late 1800’s, the existing city water mains were unable to meet the demands of the new building heights. To this day, the mains below the city cannot provide the pressure needed to deliver water above the sixth floor – hence the building height at which you require a tank.

So if you know NYC at all, you’d know that this is A LOT OF WATER TOWERS.

However, building owners are NOT REQUIRED to submit proof to the city that regular cleaning, maintenance, testing and inspections have occurred – as they do for other building services like elevators, facades and boilers – and only recently were they required to provide this proof to their tenants! The scariest part? The city doesn’t even know exactly how many tanks are in actual use.

GOOD TO KNOW

Now ok, I might be a little harsh, its not total amateur hour - the city does take samples monthly from taps all over – as well as monitoring hospital check-ins for common signs of contamination.

But the stories are just to horrific to ignore and I would rather be safe than sorry. The Times report contained a story of a Queens super who was concerned with his buildings tank after discovering poop and daylight in the crawl space between the roof and the tank cover. After having no help from his building management and the health department (after reporting this to 311), he drained the tank himself – to discover a think layer of sediment and muck at the bottom, below the drain outlet – meaning it was impossible to clean completely.

He also states that he found a pigeon bone in one of the tenant’s faucets.

YOU SEE NOW WHY I USE A FILTER?

The Times took a sample from this tank before it was professionally cleaned and it tested positive to both E.Coli and coliform. Now a quite note about the Times testing, which the health department say were flawed due to the use of methodology used and the of “non-sterilized equipment” and “not following suggested protocol”, to which the Times are saying total bs.

It’s a confusing, complicated and rather scary thought, that our water supply has pigeons, rats and bacteria breeding away and contaminating the water. If it was a seriously dangerous situation causing major outbreaks of disease I am sure we’d know about it by now – but I personally do not want to be patient zero in this instance – and for the cost of a beautifully designed Soma water filter, I will sleep easy knowing I didn’t digest any pigeon poops (that’s not vegan anyways!).

Imaage Source: Gizmodo

#wellnessarchitect #wellness #newyorkcity #water