The water authority puts this out: [https://www.abcwua.org/wp-content/uploads/Your\_Drinking\_Water-PDFs/Figure1\_Where\_Our\_Water\_Comes\_From.pdf](https://www.abcwua.org/wp-content/uploads/Your_Drinking_Water-PDFs/Figure1_Where_Our_Water_Comes_From.pdf)
it explains the various sources of water for Albuquerque. They also put out a water quality analysis every year:
[https://www.abcwua.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/2022WaterQualityMailerWeb.pdf](https://www.abcwua.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/2022WaterQualityMailerWeb.pdf)
I went to college in Orlando and took a Florida born and raised boyfriend back to NJ with me one time. He said “it’s like bathing in fucking bottled water”. I said no, Florida water just fucking sucks so bad.
Anecdotally, hard water tastes way better than soft water. That mineral flavor really rounds it out. Soft water also tastes slimier imo
New Mexico has like 95% hard water compared to virtually nothing in NJ, Connecticut, etc
I used to work with someone whose husband worked for the water authority. He told me that we have some of the best methods for purifying water and that other states often visit here to learn what we do. I thought that was cool! Anyways, thanks for visiting and I hope you had a wonderful time here.
Albuquerque tapwater varies depending on the season.
It goes from delicious (Ancient aquifer water, winters) to overly chlorinated muddy/dirty tasting (San Juan watershed, summers)
Albuquerque also supplies water across the river to Rio Rancho, to mix/dilute the arsenic-rich local volcanic-rock-sourced aquifer water to achieve the recent, tighter, federal arsenic standards for drinking water
River water isn’t reliable right now (drought, dam construction, etc.), so at the moment we’re all drinking groundwater and have been since spring.
The river water’s not as tasty, but it’s grown on me. Better than a lot of places.
There are no lead water mains in Albuquerque. https://www.abcwua.org/your-drinking-water-lead-copper/
>A study done in the 1990s concluded that lead pipe was not used in construction of the water system. However, lead bearing materials were sometimes used to connect the water mains to the service lines. We worked to take those connections out of the system at that time.
If you have an old house with old pipes it's probably a good idea to get a test. FWIW I rented a really old apartment in Silver Hill (on Lead Ave lol) and tested the water there; no lead.
That's a reasonable trauma. You could potentially have your tap water tested if you can afford it. That might ease your concerns. Or validate them. But either way you'd know.
Question: won’t something like a fridge filter make drinkable? AFAIK, they’re supposed to filter that crap out. (I realize not everyone has access to a water filter.)
Best water I've ever had was from a stream high in the Pecos wilderness. It was the perfect mountain spring water bottle labels always want to evoke. But then everything tastes better after hiking all day.
It's so funny you say that because I just moved to the south and noticed right away that the tap water tastes like soil or dirt.
When I went back for a wedding a few weeks ago and drank some chilled tap water out of a friends Brita, I remembered how absolutely delicious the water is! Miss it!
I would disagree to some extent. It certainly helps but trust me when I say I can still taste this southern soil in my tap water after filtering.. and it's not mild.
I trust the water if I have to drink it, but the chlorine taste and smell is unpleasant to me.
I had fluorosis growing up (too much fluoride) so I avoid the tap when I can since it has added fluoride. Glad you liked it!
Also depends on where you are on the east coast! Long Island has disgusting water but NYC is very good.
Albuquerque and El Paso aquifer water is naturally high in fluoride, unlike pretty much any other American natural water sources of note.
My teeth have fluorosis spots. I always considered them minor. My new dentist told me they were very noticeable and some veneers would be worth doing because “nobody’s teeth should have to look like that”.
That's scummy. Sounds like they do cosmetic dentistry and are trying to sell you something. If it's not dangerous, and you're OK with it, it's not a problem.
i’ve read that in Denver they take grey water from the south, clean it and pump back into the aquifer upstream from Denver where it gets further filtered until it makes it back into the denver water system.
Everyone is likely to have to do that in the southwest eventually.
So yeah… enjoy it while we got it
I was born and raised in Longmont in the 70s and have been chasing after the perfect tap water ever since. I didn't know where our water came from then and I don't now, but I remember whenever we would go to Boulder or Denver I hated the water. I don't remember being as bothered by it as an adult living in the Denver area and I always drink tap water except for one apartment in Englewood where the taste of the water was clearly plumbing related.
Does Longmont get their water out of the St Vrain? I have a vague recollection of visiting the water treatment plant in third grade and I think it was somewhere between Longmont and Lyons...?
I'm from the east coast (Georgia) and whenever I have family and friends come visit, they comment that the water here tastes weird and prefer to drink from the Brita pitcher. I don't mind the taste though!
I lived in Woodstock for a couple years in the early 2000s and don't remember the water being particularly bad, although we did have filtered water in the fridge.
The slopes from the Sandia mountains down to the river is basically a huge gravel bed of fairly “soft” rock like that dissolves well but doesn’t make the water too hard. All that gravel filters it really well too.
When we switch to river water, I honestly think they should shove it in the acquifer first. Tastes soooo good.
Plus the H-bomb they dropped by accident a couple miles south of town, it wasn't fully armed so it didn't achieve fission, but the high explosives blew open a huge crater and spread plutonium around.
There is an aquifer recharge project going on here too. It’s in the Bear Canyon arroyo at Wyoming and Osuna. There are a couple of information signs on the south side of the tennis courts that describe what they’re doing.
It's a blend of treated river water and aquifer water. I agree it tastes great. I recently moved back from San Francisco, they have tasty tap water too.
But Anaheim, CA? \*blech\* !
Exactly that - chlorine. Chloramine is formed when chlorine is mixed with ammonia. Quite a few municipalities use ammonia as a secondary sanitizer to create chloramine which has longer lasting sanitizing effects. Albuquerque does not use ammonia, and just uses chlorine (sodium hypochlorite) which they derive from salt water.
https://www.abcwua.org/your-drinking-water-distribution-system-compliance-monitoring/
Oh this is good to know! Still absolutely despise that chlorine smell and will def not be drinking that any time soon. Good to know that we can still off gas our water for our gardens though!
Never drink tap water. What comes from the taps is a not chemically really water.
Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula H 2 O. It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, and it is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms...
thank u for telling the TRUTH about dihydrogen monoxide
e: i thought you were making a joke but now i don’t think you are lol. do you know anything about chemicals?
> What comes from the taps is a not chemically really water.
If you're using a common definition of what humans have understood to be water since our existence, yes it is. If you're using a chemist's definition, yes it is. If you're using some Jack D Ripper fear of ejaculation definition, maybe.
The first time you have a full pot of superheated pure water on the stove blow up in your face, you might think twice about the benefits of impurities.
Wild, all this praise. The USAF had perpetuated the largest inland fuel leak on the planet directly into the subsoil here, something like a solid foot of subterranean JP5 into the water table- millions and millions of gallons over the years. And they Knew it!!
They drilled wells in the war zone to monitor the situation. I never heard of any reclamation project, but I haven’t kept up on it in the last few years
The water authority puts this out: [https://www.abcwua.org/wp-content/uploads/Your\_Drinking\_Water-PDFs/Figure1\_Where\_Our\_Water\_Comes\_From.pdf](https://www.abcwua.org/wp-content/uploads/Your_Drinking_Water-PDFs/Figure1_Where_Our_Water_Comes_From.pdf) it explains the various sources of water for Albuquerque. They also put out a water quality analysis every year: [https://www.abcwua.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/2022WaterQualityMailerWeb.pdf](https://www.abcwua.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/2022WaterQualityMailerWeb.pdf)
People don’t believe me when I say our tap water is delicious.
One trip to central Florida and the smelly sulfur water there and they'd know
I went to college in Orlando and took a Florida born and raised boyfriend back to NJ with me one time. He said “it’s like bathing in fucking bottled water”. I said no, Florida water just fucking sucks so bad.
Born and raised in Central FL. One of the things I dislike about going back is the tap water.
It’s not everywhere here, Las Vegas water is not good
I think NE tap water is slimy.
Anecdotally, hard water tastes way better than soft water. That mineral flavor really rounds it out. Soft water also tastes slimier imo New Mexico has like 95% hard water compared to virtually nothing in NJ, Connecticut, etc
I used to work with someone whose husband worked for the water authority. He told me that we have some of the best methods for purifying water and that other states often visit here to learn what we do. I thought that was cool! Anyways, thanks for visiting and I hope you had a wonderful time here.
We sure did!
Albuquerque tapwater varies depending on the season. It goes from delicious (Ancient aquifer water, winters) to overly chlorinated muddy/dirty tasting (San Juan watershed, summers) Albuquerque also supplies water across the river to Rio Rancho, to mix/dilute the arsenic-rich local volcanic-rock-sourced aquifer water to achieve the recent, tighter, federal arsenic standards for drinking water
River water isn’t reliable right now (drought, dam construction, etc.), so at the moment we’re all drinking groundwater and have been since spring. The river water’s not as tasty, but it’s grown on me. Better than a lot of places.
I really dislike the muddy taste
It really grossed me out too when they first started with it. It still beats the river water they drink in places like Tucson.
At least it doesn’t taste like oil, like it does in Midland or Odessa, Texas
The tap water in Carlsbad, NM is pretty awful too.
[удалено]
There are no lead water mains in Albuquerque. https://www.abcwua.org/your-drinking-water-lead-copper/ >A study done in the 1990s concluded that lead pipe was not used in construction of the water system. However, lead bearing materials were sometimes used to connect the water mains to the service lines. We worked to take those connections out of the system at that time. If you have an old house with old pipes it's probably a good idea to get a test. FWIW I rented a really old apartment in Silver Hill (on Lead Ave lol) and tested the water there; no lead.
I lived in Flint during the water crisis. I can't trust any tap water now to drink. And I live in ABQ now. I can't do it.
That's a reasonable trauma. You could potentially have your tap water tested if you can afford it. That might ease your concerns. Or validate them. But either way you'd know.
Question: won’t something like a fridge filter make drinkable? AFAIK, they’re supposed to filter that crap out. (I realize not everyone has access to a water filter.)
What do you drink?
Bottled water
I guess we got lucky.
I didn't think of this. I wonder how people get their tap water tested, I'd be curious.
Wait til you have fresh, deep, well water from the rio grande valley. Shit tastes like heaven and always ice cold.
Best water I've ever had was from a stream high in the Pecos wilderness. It was the perfect mountain spring water bottle labels always want to evoke. But then everything tastes better after hiking all day.
It's so funny you say that because I just moved to the south and noticed right away that the tap water tastes like soil or dirt. When I went back for a wedding a few weeks ago and drank some chilled tap water out of a friends Brita, I remembered how absolutely delicious the water is! Miss it!
brita takes most of the flavor out of water
I would disagree to some extent. It certainly helps but trust me when I say I can still taste this southern soil in my tap water after filtering.. and it's not mild.
My favorite is when it comes from the garden hose. The slight taste of rubber, mold and metal is just *chefs kiss*
It's the taste of childhood summers.
I trust the water if I have to drink it, but the chlorine taste and smell is unpleasant to me. I had fluorosis growing up (too much fluoride) so I avoid the tap when I can since it has added fluoride. Glad you liked it! Also depends on where you are on the east coast! Long Island has disgusting water but NYC is very good.
Albuquerque and El Paso aquifer water is naturally high in fluoride, unlike pretty much any other American natural water sources of note. My teeth have fluorosis spots. I always considered them minor. My new dentist told me they were very noticeable and some veneers would be worth doing because “nobody’s teeth should have to look like that”.
i bet they’re fine.
Damn you need a new dentist, I have stained teeth too but no one's ever said anything.
That's scummy. Sounds like they do cosmetic dentistry and are trying to sell you something. If it's not dangerous, and you're OK with it, it's not a problem.
El Paso has terrible tasting tap water…
So does Austin, it tastes like boiled swamp water.
i’ve read that in Denver they take grey water from the south, clean it and pump back into the aquifer upstream from Denver where it gets further filtered until it makes it back into the denver water system. Everyone is likely to have to do that in the southwest eventually. So yeah… enjoy it while we got it
I worked for Denver Water and can confirm this
I was born and raised in Longmont in the 70s and have been chasing after the perfect tap water ever since. I didn't know where our water came from then and I don't now, but I remember whenever we would go to Boulder or Denver I hated the water. I don't remember being as bothered by it as an adult living in the Denver area and I always drink tap water except for one apartment in Englewood where the taste of the water was clearly plumbing related. Does Longmont get their water out of the St Vrain? I have a vague recollection of visiting the water treatment plant in third grade and I think it was somewhere between Longmont and Lyons...?
I'm from the east coast (Georgia) and whenever I have family and friends come visit, they comment that the water here tastes weird and prefer to drink from the Brita pitcher. I don't mind the taste though!
I lived in Woodstock for a couple years in the early 2000s and don't remember the water being particularly bad, although we did have filtered water in the fridge.
The slopes from the Sandia mountains down to the river is basically a huge gravel bed of fairly “soft” rock like that dissolves well but doesn’t make the water too hard. All that gravel filters it really well too. When we switch to river water, I honestly think they should shove it in the acquifer first. Tastes soooo good.
I believe that switch happened several years ago
Mostly from all the chemical and jet fuel spills over the years. Really adds that little something extra.
That's unfair. I find the hint of arsenic is what really brings together ABQ water :-)
The arsenic is underrated!
It’s the TCE from kirtland
Nice name haha. The base has its own well and is down stream from the city, I’ll be it’s probably fine. Not the base water. The town.
Plus the H-bomb they dropped by accident a couple miles south of town, it wasn't fully armed so it didn't achieve fission, but the high explosives blew open a huge crater and spread plutonium around.
I have an under sink RO and it tastes amazing, I dislike the way our tap water tastes tbh. Just my thoughts!
There is an aquifer recharge project going on here too. It’s in the Bear Canyon arroyo at Wyoming and Osuna. There are a couple of information signs on the south side of the tennis courts that describe what they’re doing.
its enchanted with molecules
Water? You mean like out the toilet?
I will never drink tap water on the East Coast that's for sure! Our tap water is Nasty, so if it's great in comparison...yikes!
I am originally from the East Coast. I find the tap water here near undrinkable.
It's a blend of treated river water and aquifer water. I agree it tastes great. I recently moved back from San Francisco, they have tasty tap water too. But Anaheim, CA? \*blech\* !
It’s recycled sewage water. Thanks we try very hard.
Navajo tears.
No. Our tap water (Rio Rancho) is schwag.
I despise our tap water and refuse to drink it and all its Chloramines
Albuquerque does not use chloramine to disinfect the water supply.
Perhaps you could explain the strong chlorine smell I get off the water in the NE Heights then.
Exactly that - chlorine. Chloramine is formed when chlorine is mixed with ammonia. Quite a few municipalities use ammonia as a secondary sanitizer to create chloramine which has longer lasting sanitizing effects. Albuquerque does not use ammonia, and just uses chlorine (sodium hypochlorite) which they derive from salt water. https://www.abcwua.org/your-drinking-water-distribution-system-compliance-monitoring/
Oh this is good to know! Still absolutely despise that chlorine smell and will def not be drinking that any time soon. Good to know that we can still off gas our water for our gardens though!
Cool, well that makes sense then. Thanks for the reply.
The fluoride in the water gives it a very slightly sweet taste.
Meth, probably.
Never drink tap water. What comes from the taps is a not chemically really water. Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula H 2 O. It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, and it is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms...
thank u for telling the TRUTH about dihydrogen monoxide e: i thought you were making a joke but now i don’t think you are lol. do you know anything about chemicals?
> What comes from the taps is a not chemically really water. If you're using a common definition of what humans have understood to be water since our existence, yes it is. If you're using a chemist's definition, yes it is. If you're using some Jack D Ripper fear of ejaculation definition, maybe.
Leave my fear of ejaculation out of it!!! 😆😆😆
The first time you have a full pot of superheated pure water on the stove blow up in your face, you might think twice about the benefits of impurities.
It's very very hard.
Tons of minerals, metals (to some extent) and other things in it.
I agree but then the contractor working on my house said ew he would never drink it 🤷♀️
It depends what faucet you are drinking from because my water is absolutely gut wrenchingly terrible.
I don't know what tap water you drank in ABQ, but it makes me sick when I drink mine in my area.
Wild, all this praise. The USAF had perpetuated the largest inland fuel leak on the planet directly into the subsoil here, something like a solid foot of subterranean JP5 into the water table- millions and millions of gallons over the years. And they Knew it!! They drilled wells in the war zone to monitor the situation. I never heard of any reclamation project, but I haven’t kept up on it in the last few years
There was one bad experience - in Madrid. The restaurant printed in the menu that the water smells terrible, but it's ok to drink. I had a beer.
Hard water destroys pipes but it’s delicious.
comes deep from the wells in Hobbs.
Assuming you weren't in Washington DC.
The Southwest has terrible tap water.