Quick Drips

Researchers found an ultra-short-chain PFAS called TFA in 64 of 70 New Jersey tap water samples. Here is what the study shows, what is regulated, and the honest limit of what a pitcher filter can do.

Pennsylvania told anglers not to eat fish from the Wissahickon Creek basin after PFOS turned up in fish tissue. That is a watershed finding, not a tap water result. Here is how to tell the two apart and find your own system's numbers.

Maricopa, Arizona spent a day under a boil advisory over a possible E. coli result, and a lot of households asked the same question: does a filter pitcher count? The CDC answer is no, and here is why.

In a system meeting federal standards, tap water is generally considered safe to drink. The qualifiers are local, and lead and nitrate are the two worth a deliberate look during pregnancy.

Water prices at the 500 largest US systems rose 62 percent in a decade, faster than inflation, groceries or incomes. Here is what that bill actually pays for, where the line falls between your utility and you, and how to run the cost math before buying anything.

A water softener is a scale machine, not a drinking water filter. What ion exchange actually adds, the sodium numbers that matter, and the lead question softening makes more relevant, not less.

A water notice can say your system exceeded the trihalomethane standard and that this is not an emergency, both at once. Here is how the running annual average works, why the notice arrives late by design, and why boiling makes it worse.

A September nor'easter put parts of the East Coast under water. If you draw from a private well, flood water means the well is contaminated until a certified laboratory says otherwise. Here is the order of operations.

Milky tap water is almost always dissolved air coming out of solution at the tap, and it clears on its own. Here is the two minute glass test, why it is a cold weather problem, and what changes after a water main break.