What Is ‘Raw’ Water, and Should You Drink It?

Raw water enthusiasts say that drinking water that is untreated and unfiltered is safe and healthier than tap water. Find out what the research says.

“A glass of natural, untreated water that meets every state and federal standard for drinking safety and is free of man-made contamination, or a glass of river water from New York mixed with chlorine, fluoride, anti-corrosives, nitrate, and pharmaceuticals. Which would you prefer?”

If you drink from the tap, then glass number two describes the components of your water. To ensure that your water is safe to drink by federal standards, it is treated with chemicals, such as chlorine to eliminate harmful microorganisms, and anti-corrosives that protect against infrastructure contamination while the water travels through pipes to your home.

Without sterilization, untreated or unfiltered water could be swarming with dangerous microorganisms, such as Giardia lamblia, cryptosporidium, and Vibrio cholerae, which could lead to hazardous health issues, such as diarrhea, sepsis, cholera, and potentially death.But raw water enthusiasts, such as Bryan Pullen and his customers, have been drinking untreated and unfiltered water for years and say they have never fallen ill.

“In Summit Spring’s 150-year history, I was astounded to learn that no one has ever been sick, nor have they ever filed a single complaint,” says Pullen. “That’s how pure the water is.”

“Raw water” is a general term for unfiltered or unsterilized spring water that includes naturally occuring minerals and lacks chemical additives that are put into tap water to remove potential contaminants. Not only is raw water jugged, bottled, and sold in modern grocery stores across the United States, it’s flying off the shelves. At Rainbow Grocery, a worker-owned cooperative located in San Francisco, glass containers of raw water marketed by Live Water are rarely in stock — despite selling for $39.99 per 2.5 gallon jug.The water at Summit Springs has a strict testing protocol to ensure that every bottle meets state and federal regulations, but not all raw water is pure and safe to drink.

A Case for Raw Water

“You’re drinking toilet water with birth control drugs in them,” says Live Water founder Mukhande Singh when reflecting on the tap water that we drink. He’s not entirely wrong. According to an Associated Press investigation on drinking water supplies for 24 major metropolitan areas, traces of prescription medication, antibiotics, anticoagulants, sex hormones, over-the-counter drugs, and additives from shampoos and lotions do exist in our tap water.Filters and sterilizing agents such as chlorine are used to clear tap water of harmful microorganisms and prevent it from surface-level contaminants as it travels from the water source to your spigot.

“Filters remove minerals, parasites, and bacteria — good and bad,” says Pullen. “Pharmaceutical drugs and chemicals get past filters, so chlorine is there to sterilize the water while it is transported through the pipes to your home.”

Sometimes those pipes can be dangerous — especially if they’re old and made of iron, and especially if your state government is trying to get by with spending the least amount of money as possible. Remember Flint, Michigan?Live Water and Summit Springs bottle their water right at the covered, natural spring because they say it eliminates the need for chemical sterilizing agents and the possibility for surface-level contamination from air pollution, animal feces, and man-made pollutants residing in lakes, streams, and rivers.

According to Singh, whose water comes from Madras, Oregon, “our tests have never shown any industrial age contamination or potentially harmful components.”Pullen adds that they perform “continuous tests every time they bottle for harmful contaminants, quarterly tests of their containers and filtration systems, and state and federal tests annually for 200 different chemicals.”

The Dangers of Drinking Raw Water

According to the The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), drinking water comes from groundwater, streams, rivers, and lakes, which are subject to contamination by animal byproducts, microbials, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and pollution. To ensure your drinking water is safe, the EPA sets regulations for over 90 contaminants for drinking water, including:

• Chemical contaminants: arsenic, chemical, lead, copper, radionuclides, lead, and other chemicals
• Microbial contaminants: coliform, disinfection byproducts, bacteria, parasites, and other pathogens

Even though untreated water appears clean, drinking it can be extremely dangerous to your health. “Even though the water looked pristine, there are all kinds of wildlife in the mountains that poop in the fields, and when it rains or the snow melts, the pathogens in their feces end up in the water,” says Alan Roberson, the executive director of the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA).Consuming raw water from surface-level sources put us at risk for a number of hazardous health issues caused by pathogens, such as:

• Giardia lamblia is a parasite found in soil, food, or water that colonizes in our small intestines. According to previous research published in the journal American Society for Biology, G. lamblia results in a diarrhea-inducing disease called giardiasis and is the most common cause of waterborne outbreaks of diarrhea in the United States.
• Cryptosporidium is a microorganism derived from feces that causes diarrhea, abdominal cramping, nausea, and potential death.
• Vibrio cholerae is another aquatic microorganism, which when ingested can lead to cholera, an acute diarrheal intestinal infection. Symptoms of cholera range from nausea, abdominal cramping, and lethargy to severe dehydration, septic shock, and even death.

Ensure That Your Drinking Water Is Safe

“The basic benefit of drinking water is hydration to keep our bodies healthy and functioning properly,” says Kathy Benedict, PhD, epidemiologist in the Waterborne and Disease Prevention Branch of the CDC. “It’s important for people to know where their water comes from, what’s in it, how it’s delivered, and whether it’s safe for them to drink.”

According to EPA Press Officer Enesta Jones, water safety requirements are often met in the United States. “Over 91 percent of the community water systems meet all health-based standards all of the time,” says Jones.

Despite small levels of contamination from pharmaceuticals and chemical additives residing in U.S. tap water, our tap water is safe to consume unfiltered. “The United States has one of the safest public drinking water supplies in the world,” says Dr. Benedict.

“Tap water is very safe to drink in the United States,” adds my Pickering, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. “It isn’t necessary [to filter tap water] 99 percent of the time, but many people think it tastes better filtered.”

To ensure the safety of your water supply, you can:

• Have your tap water tested.
• Read the Consumer Confidence Report on your local drinking water.
• Filter your tap water.
• Drink bottled water that meets the Food and Drug Administration’s federal standards.
• Boil your water.