Over half of SF now has water mixed with well water. :( my home included. At least it’s more resilient. They say you can’t tell the difference, but then clarified you’d be able to tell in a side-by-side comparison.
HETCH HETCHYYYYYYYY! I have a long time water bottle that says "Hetch Hetchy" and for the past over a decade I've had it, I've only allowed that glorious HH water to hit its lips.
As far as I know, SF has been adding local water supply to the Hetch Hetchy. There was a lot of kerfluffle about this on Next Door prior to the pandemic.
When the water hit like that even through the hose in the 70s, and 80s..best tap water ever. Haven’t had the hybrid though….man why they gotta mess with a good thing??
Most of our water comes from Hetch Hetchy in the Sierras near Yosemite. We have some of the best water in the country as a result. https://sfpuc.org/programs/water-supply
LAs water is a less great mix of “groundwater, surface water, imported water, and recycled water.”
Thankfully the snow from last winter refilled Owen’s lake an amount and someone in the LADWP grew a brain and decided to leave a lot of it there because they were really struggling with dust mitigation before. So there’s a lake there now. Not what it was 200 years ago but it’s still somewhat impressive
When I go back to my parents’ house in Orange County I can’t even drink the tap water after it’s been Brita filtered, that’s how much SF has made me into a water snob.
German living in SF here - did not know this, and love it now. Since Europeans always look down at American tap water (rightfully so in most areas I guess), I can now well acschuaaally friends and family that come to visit.
Dude we did the little cabooses with hot tubs in clear lake a few years back and it was a FUCKEN VIBE. no WiFi no internet only railfan DVDs. I can only imagine the heaven the Dunsmuir railroad park
Seattle’s water source is also from glaciers (olympic mts). Amazing flavor.
In SF, I think the water I get at my apt is from groundwater cause it’s not nearly as good.
Kinda. Seattle owns two different watersheds in the Cascades: the Tolit and the Cedar River. The Ceder River one tastes pretty amazing.
Especially in the winter months.
According to [this NYT article from 2007](https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/nyregion/thecity/18feat.html), there are 5 cities that don't require purification cause the source is so pure: NYC; Boston, MA; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; and Portland, OR
NYCs water is better than SF to me. But thankfully SF is also amazing and it's negligible.
NYC water also [isn't technically Kosher](https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/nyregion/the-waters-fine-but-is-it-kosher.html) (spoiler: it's tiny crustaceans in the water)
Mostly true. SF has some local supplies they have to treat during winter maintenance and emergency. Portland has had some major issues related to wildfires and are now building treatment. The others just disinfect.
I think Cleveland's water was a little better than SF, but SF is better than what we have in most of Asia. I'm in Taipei and the water is good here, but nothing like SF or Cleveland and I still run a filter here.
I remember when I lived above baker beach, we had to sign waivers about drinking the tap water haha. Possible lead/asbestos stuff.
Not gonna lie, hungover mornings without filtered or bottle water ended up with some sips from the faucet😬😜
I attended and worked at a summer camp in the Sierras that got all of it water from a spring on the property. That water will always be special for me. SF is good, but not quite that good.
SF water is snow melt from the Sierras - they pipe water from Hetch Hetchy. We have spring water on tap.
(Edit: ok, they mix in ground water in most neighborhoods at SF Water’s discretion which does impact taste a bit, but even then it’s mostly spring water)
As someone who grew up in Orange County and lived in the Bay Area for almost 20 years, we have the best water here. Good lord the tap water in SoCal is gross.
I'm from OC too.. Hate the tap down there. I think it's because it's partially recycled water. So happy to be in the bay, even outside of SF. The tap here tastes great.
100% agree bc i also grew up/lived in OC for 22 years before moving here and living here for 8 years. the water in OC is so hard. my skin dries up like crazy every time i visit OC and i can hardly drink the filtered tap water down there.
hydrohomies would understand the pain.
OC native & 17 year SF resident here. I would never even think to drink the tap in OC. It isn’t even an option. I used to think all tap water was the same disgusting thing only suitable for toilets and washing your car until a friend in SF gave me a glass of water straight from the tap. My mind was blown and my life was changed!!!
I just returned from a trip to LA, and the difference is like light and day. Bay Area water tastes like nothing to me (in a rly good way). LA water is bitter and chemical-y. I’m so glad I don’t live there anymore
Hard to say. All I know is if I had a glass of LA tap water and glass of SF tap water, I’d be able to easily identify them.
One isn’t better than the other, to me. The SF one had sort of a fish-ier type of taste. But this is a bad explanation, and I don’t mean it in a negative way. Again, neither tasted better than the other, to me. But both were very much different from each other.
I thought LA city water was undrinkable. [https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1dlfx71/comment/l9pnac6/](https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1dlfx71/comment/l9pnac6/)
You must be about LA County and not LA city water. Nobody drinks LA city water. That's why there are so many stores selling filtered water.
The difference of water taste in places with safe water is usually do to minerals left in the water. These minerals add slight flavor differences to the water.
When I lived in S.F., I dated a girl who was originally from Orange County. She came back from a trip to visit her parents and she smelled like chlorine. I asked her if she went swimming that morning. She told me she just took a shower. This should answer your question. 😜
Its not hard water and has a pretty good balance of minerals. Father-in-law works for a water softener company in OC and always brings up how good the water is here.
San Francisco gets its water from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. It tastes delicious and perfect and even high end places don’t mess with it because they don’t have to.
https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/hh.htm
Except in areas deemed lesser, where it’s now mixed with ground water. https://www.sfpuc.org/sites/default/files/documents/Groundwater-Supply-Project_FAQ_DEC2017.pdf
It tastes like shit now in the Richmond south of Lake street and other areas. You’re good if your property values are high enough.
Not to mention, the water we get in Southern California is mixed with all the recycled pee of everybody upstream from us. I'm a San Francisco native, now living in San Diego, and I have a reverse osmosis system on my kitchen tab and that's the only water we drink. It's so amazing when I go visit my family and can just put a glass under the tap and fill it up. SF water does have a bit of a chlorine taste now- - didn't have that when I was a kid.
I joined a UCLA trip to LA's water treatment plant.
Long story short, being a dryer region, they treat waste water into drinking quality. It sounds disgusting, but the process is actually very well engineered and is likely more safe/clean than natural alternatives.
It's also surprisingly energy efficient and beats desalination by a long shot.
Los Angeles is the only place I’ve lived where it’s common to go to a “Water Store” I didn’t know what that was about until I tested my water, you guys do have some shit ass water.
Anytime I go to So Cal, I always fill up a water bottle of our local water and bring it with me. Then I get a little sad when I finish up that bottle and have to switch to their water.
Hetch Hetchy water is consistently rated one of the best.
It's also filtered by granite rocks.
There is no need for anyone in SF to buy bottled water. In fact, unless you have a contaminated well there's no reason to buy bottled water.
In fact, a lot of bottled water is sourced from municipal systems.
Head up to Mt Shasta and, for free, you can get the same water sold in bottles- right from the spring!
Here is the map:
https://sfpuc.org/sites/default/files/documents/GroundwaterBlendMap_MAY2017.pdf
There was a post last week about the groundwater blend and quite a bit of people thought the Sunset and Richmond were unblended. They actually are. Good news is that it is only about .02% groundwater.
Others have explained better than I can. Our tap water is incredible.
When I visit my family in L.A., I only drink bottled. They may have sunny gardens and warm beaches, but I'd rather not have to hold my nose and chew when I drink water.
Depending on where you are in LA, your water is either from the Owens River, the Colorado River, the California Aqueduct or local groundwater. It is often a combination of these sources.
Most of LA’s water sources are very mineral laden (the San Gabriels are some of the most erosive mountains on earth) as opposed to San Francisco or Oakland water which are primarily Sierra runoff with very little mineral deposit. Hetchy Hetchy has extremely low sediment deposit for a reservoir of its size because the Sierras are mostly granite.
Colorado River water tastes nasty because it picks up so many minerals on its trek down.
Last time I visited LA (stayed in koreatown) I took one sip from the tap and switched to bottled. Tastes worse than Bangkok water which is actually unsafe to drink.
The Hetch Hetchy reservoir is one of the greatest in the country. LA water is known to suck and SF is known to be one of the best in the US. It's no wonder it is a stark difference of taste for you. (And this is coming from someone currently living in LA and not being able to drink this nasty stuff).
Potentially unrelated. SoCal water is gross af while we have the cleanest tap water on earth.
However. I’ve heard faucet water in some
Homes/apartments is grimey cuz of the old ass pipes.
Orange County was the pioneer in recycling waste water. I think they're still the largest utility to recycle potable water. It tastes horrible but I think their strategy has been to over filter and overdose it with chemicals so they can show stellar test results to show the world their over treated water is safe. They show off the numbers but don't talk about the taste.
I used to feel nauseous every time I would visit friends down there because I couldn't stand the water down there. I started buying bottled water when I visit and I feel fine.
You have now crossed the line and you can never go back. You have tasted the water of the gods and everything else tastes ......blahhhhhhhhhh. Except in some little town in Utah ...Beaver City.
Yep, Hetch Hetchy. I had no clue either on why so I went down a rabbit hole also and figured it out. It’s the best water in the nation I’ve had so far.
I’ve always felt like water from Hetch Hetchy tastes ever so slightly sweet, in a crisp and natural way, if that makes any sense.. when I moved down to the OC for college, everyone was using the tap with their reusable water bottles but I just couldn’t, I thought the tap water tasted a bit metallic and overall unpleasant. Spent quite a bit on bottled water those years.
Inglewood has some nasty tasting water. I’m not sure if it’s the plumbing, but my stomach sank everytime I tried to drink it. It was so bad, I resorted to buying water from the grocery store.
I grew up in the Bay Area and that water is hella good! Bang bang niner gang good
We get our water from the spring sierra nevada meltoff, through the hetch hetchy viaduct. A small portion of the city water now comes from the ground and is mixed with the fresh water. My part of the sunset district has the mixed water as of about 8 years ago. It stinks because we noticed tye difference immediately:( i’m 2 blocks away from where the fresh water flows:( I can only imagine LA water is not pure snowmelt.
When I went to UCSB, I would fill hydroflasks and nalgenes full of tap water from home whenever I would go back for holidays. I savored every last drop when I would get back to school.
SF has water sourced from Yosemite valley, the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. They have begun to blend it with some ground water recently (2017ish).
Buying bottled water in SF is kinda crazy because the tap water is probably better.
I always hear it’s supposed to be good (I guess compared to some other places?) but to me SF water tastes like chlorine - and makes me nauseous when I drink it on an empty stomach.
I’m up in the Sierra foothills east of SF, our tap water is all super soft rainwater and snowmelt, which gets piped down to SF as well.
Yours is approximately 86% dissolved mineral slurry.
The Hetch Hetchy water is stored at Crystal Springs reservoir, which also collects water from the Santa Cruz mountains runoff, so it has always been blended
From a new resident here over last few years, Tap water in SF has a lite chlorine like taste to it (informed by the smell too). Very noticeable to me. We still use and drink it from a brita filter. I do wonder if I would feel differently having grown up with it as a child.
I lived in Southern California before moving to the Bay. The source of the water is different in some cases, and all the water has to be transported in viaduct or canals. A lot of it has to be treated more because of high concentrations of agricultural runoff.
Last week I hiked around Hetch Hetchy, the source of SF water. The water falls feeding the reservoir are spectacular.
[Wapama Falls at Hetch Hetchy](https://youtu.be/kFTR_uSJKq4?si=yLvK2vPnzbtfw1XL)
As a young Scout backpacking all throughout my youth, we would savor the last of our SF tap water in our canteens since the treated and filtered stuff would be quite a bit different. Then when we'd get back to the vehicles, we'd enjoy a couple of saved bottles of SF water for our end of trip celebration.
The Hetch Hetchy baby
I love it when restaurants list tap water as Hech Hetchy on a menu. Put respect on that tap’s name!
Ooh where do they do this?
Probably places that charge a 5% because fuck you that's why fee
Hell yeah.
me too
well technically now or in the new future, it will be a Hetch Hetchy blend.
It already is. Over half the city is on the blend. :/
that sucks
The water in Fremont was also great tasting. Then they started mixing it with well water and ruined the party.
Over half of SF now has water mixed with well water. :( my home included. At least it’s more resilient. They say you can’t tell the difference, but then clarified you’d be able to tell in a side-by-side comparison.
I noticed when they switched over to blended. Suddenly one day the water had a sort of flat, bitter taste. Still better than most cities.
HETCH HETCHYYYYYYYY! I have a long time water bottle that says "Hetch Hetchy" and for the past over a decade I've had it, I've only allowed that glorious HH water to hit its lips.
I recommend you don’t call it the glorious HH
Sometimes we’re too close to glean perspective.
How about just the Glory H.
I love the Hetch Hetchy loyalty.
I miss it soooooo much.
As far as I know, SF has been adding local water supply to the Hetch Hetchy. There was a lot of kerfluffle about this on Next Door prior to the pandemic.
All it took was flooding what was basically a second Yosemite
I know it’s hella sad
Highly recommend hiking out there and getting water straight out of a stream. Best water I've ever had
When the water hit like that even through the hose in the 70s, and 80s..best tap water ever. Haven’t had the hybrid though….man why they gotta mess with a good thing??
Most of our water comes from Hetch Hetchy in the Sierras near Yosemite. We have some of the best water in the country as a result. https://sfpuc.org/programs/water-supply LAs water is a less great mix of “groundwater, surface water, imported water, and recycled water.”
LA water is from Sketch-Sketchy sources.
This made me laugh out loud
Forget it, Jake. It’s shitty water town.
You win
Still better than Phoenix. "From a dead rando floating in the canal to your tap" should be their motto.
I mean, the myth of a Phoenix rising from the ashes is right in their name. Of course they are one cycle away from death.
It’s sadly drawn out all the water from the amazing Owen Valley and it is a goddamn crime.
Learning about the history of this in Cadillac Desert left my jaw on the floor.
Destroying the Hetch Hetchy Valley isn’t any better btw
Thankfully the snow from last winter refilled Owen’s lake an amount and someone in the LADWP grew a brain and decided to leave a lot of it there because they were really struggling with dust mitigation before. So there’s a lake there now. Not what it was 200 years ago but it’s still somewhat impressive
😂😂😂😂
When I go back to my parents’ house in Orange County I can’t even drink the tap water after it’s been Brita filtered, that’s how much SF has made me into a water snob.
Same! My kid uses “on a scale of one to Burbank Water” for describing levels of unpleasantness
When my grandparents would visit from Orange County, they'd fill bottles with our tap water to take home with them.
L.A. water tastes so stale to me. Like it has freezer burn even when it hasn't been frozen.
Exactly! To me it tastes thin and lifeless.
Two different sides of the Sierra.
German living in SF here - did not know this, and love it now. Since Europeans always look down at American tap water (rightfully so in most areas I guess), I can now well acschuaaally friends and family that come to visit.
I lived in Sweden for a few years and I prefer the taste of the water in SF over the water in Stockholm.
What can you tell me about San Jose water?
Two words: Superfund Site
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It is the most spectacular water on earth and I am extremely weird about it
The best in the US Iceland’s water rocked my world. Worth the trip to just drink from the tap
The entire country is named for frozen water, the water better be good.
counterpoint: this country is not very good at United nor at States
As a tap water enthusiast, I will gladly accept this challenge 🥹🥰
You may want to jaunt over to Dunsmuir and have a little sip or two
Dude we did the little cabooses with hot tubs in clear lake a few years back and it was a FUCKEN VIBE. no WiFi no internet only railfan DVDs. I can only imagine the heaven the Dunsmuir railroad park
I don’t know if McCloud shares the same water source, but the tap water there was divine.
Ok now I need to go on a tap water road trip!!! Who has shotgun?
Sacramento headwaters!
There’s a weird hippie guy who stands in front of that spring in Shasta. He looks like Gandalf and thinks he’s the protector of the headwaters.
I drank right out of some of the falls in Iceland
Same! So good
The cold water is legit similar to Hetch Hetchy. The hot can get a little sulphury.
Seattle’s water source is also from glaciers (olympic mts). Amazing flavor. In SF, I think the water I get at my apt is from groundwater cause it’s not nearly as good.
Kinda. Seattle owns two different watersheds in the Cascades: the Tolit and the Cedar River. The Ceder River one tastes pretty amazing. Especially in the winter months.
According to [this NYT article from 2007](https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/nyregion/thecity/18feat.html), there are 5 cities that don't require purification cause the source is so pure: NYC; Boston, MA; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; and Portland, OR NYCs water is better than SF to me. But thankfully SF is also amazing and it's negligible.
if you go to Tahoe it’s even better
NYC water also [isn't technically Kosher](https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/nyregion/the-waters-fine-but-is-it-kosher.html) (spoiler: it's tiny crustaceans in the water)
That's why it tastes sooo good!
I’ve heard that’s why their bagels are so good
Mostly true. SF has some local supplies they have to treat during winter maintenance and emergency. Portland has had some major issues related to wildfires and are now building treatment. The others just disinfect.
No longer true; chloramine is now added.
Mmm. Sulphur.
It just smells like sulfur for 5 minutes :p
I think Cleveland's water was a little better than SF, but SF is better than what we have in most of Asia. I'm in Taipei and the water is good here, but nothing like SF or Cleveland and I still run a filter here.
*Pdx has entered the chat
Meet me behind the las pulgas water temple and say that 🤬
I’ll be there at midnight in my skin tone gimp suit with my biggest super soaker
Oh god, Portland really **has** entered the chat
https://preview.redd.it/5wg9xaouoc8d1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=49000998293e1ddd55ddf37181cb19528ff80459
But where’s my fluoride?
At the dentist
EBMUD and SF water are both amazing
SF minus the Presidio’s water 😒
70% of the water comes from Lobo's Creek that's in the Presidio.
It’s not the water it’s all the old lead pipes
wait what? never heard this before !
Oh I’m well aware it gets pumped from Lobos. It tastes nasty.
I remember when I lived above baker beach, we had to sign waivers about drinking the tap water haha. Possible lead/asbestos stuff. Not gonna lie, hungover mornings without filtered or bottle water ended up with some sips from the faucet😬😜
I love everything about living in the Presidio except for this
I’m a water snob and it’s fucking pristine. It’s one of the many reasons I could never leave this place. 😂
I feel terrible flushing my toilet with it
I attended and worked at a summer camp in the Sierras that got all of it water from a spring on the property. That water will always be special for me. SF is good, but not quite that good.
Not on earth…. That’s way over the top.
I believe you missed my comment that I am “ *extremely weird about it* “
SF water is snow melt from the Sierras - they pipe water from Hetch Hetchy. We have spring water on tap. (Edit: ok, they mix in ground water in most neighborhoods at SF Water’s discretion which does impact taste a bit, but even then it’s mostly spring water)
As someone who grew up in Orange County and lived in the Bay Area for almost 20 years, we have the best water here. Good lord the tap water in SoCal is gross.
I'm from OC too.. Hate the tap down there. I think it's because it's partially recycled water. So happy to be in the bay, even outside of SF. The tap here tastes great.
It’s because it’s mostly ground water
100% agree bc i also grew up/lived in OC for 22 years before moving here and living here for 8 years. the water in OC is so hard. my skin dries up like crazy every time i visit OC and i can hardly drink the filtered tap water down there. hydrohomies would understand the pain.
OC native & 17 year SF resident here. I would never even think to drink the tap in OC. It isn’t even an option. I used to think all tap water was the same disgusting thing only suitable for toilets and washing your car until a friend in SF gave me a glass of water straight from the tap. My mind was blown and my life was changed!!!
How does it taste to you? To me it's just clean and crisp! I prefer it over bottled water which tastes minerally to me. Plus fuck plastic bottles!
I just returned from a trip to LA, and the difference is like light and day. Bay Area water tastes like nothing to me (in a rly good way). LA water is bitter and chemical-y. I’m so glad I don’t live there anymore
Hard to say. All I know is if I had a glass of LA tap water and glass of SF tap water, I’d be able to easily identify them. One isn’t better than the other, to me. The SF one had sort of a fish-ier type of taste. But this is a bad explanation, and I don’t mean it in a negative way. Again, neither tasted better than the other, to me. But both were very much different from each other.
As someone who has had both, La tap tastes more chemically cleaned and sf tap is sweet and crisp.
I thought LA city water was undrinkable. [https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1dlfx71/comment/l9pnac6/](https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1dlfx71/comment/l9pnac6/)
It is for me. I have family down there and I can't even use their ice from their fridge.
You must be about LA County and not LA city water. Nobody drinks LA city water. That's why there are so many stores selling filtered water. The difference of water taste in places with safe water is usually do to minerals left in the water. These minerals add slight flavor differences to the water.
I agree with the fishier taste-I always try to filter out what I call the algae taste. 🤢
When I lived in S.F., I dated a girl who was originally from Orange County. She came back from a trip to visit her parents and she smelled like chlorine. I asked her if she went swimming that morning. She told me she just took a shower. This should answer your question. 😜
Its not hard water and has a pretty good balance of minerals. Father-in-law works for a water softener company in OC and always brings up how good the water is here.
L.A. water tastes like drinking from a swimming pool.
A swimming pool that’s been peed in.
Pee with a little swimming pool water in it.
San Francisco gets its water from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. It tastes delicious and perfect and even high end places don’t mess with it because they don’t have to. https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/hh.htm
Except in areas deemed lesser, where it’s now mixed with ground water. https://www.sfpuc.org/sites/default/files/documents/Groundwater-Supply-Project_FAQ_DEC2017.pdf It tastes like shit now in the Richmond south of Lake street and other areas. You’re good if your property values are high enough.
Informative page, thanks!
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Not to mention, the water we get in Southern California is mixed with all the recycled pee of everybody upstream from us. I'm a San Francisco native, now living in San Diego, and I have a reverse osmosis system on my kitchen tab and that's the only water we drink. It's so amazing when I go visit my family and can just put a glass under the tap and fill it up. SF water does have a bit of a chlorine taste now- - didn't have that when I was a kid.
I always drive down to LA with a canteen of SF water and make my parents drink it. They love it
I always bring my own water when I go to OC too. Although I don’t share it with anyone!
I joined a UCLA trip to LA's water treatment plant. Long story short, being a dryer region, they treat waste water into drinking quality. It sounds disgusting, but the process is actually very well engineered and is likely more safe/clean than natural alternatives. It's also surprisingly energy efficient and beats desalination by a long shot.
In LA I use a Brita water filter … just to give it one.last.pass at filtration, before drinking it.
SF has a brand new recycled water installation at the Oceanside WWTP. I don’t think it’s online yet, but get ready!
Orange County water tastes funky to me. Has a metal taste to it that I find off putting. It’s also usually warm versus SF water always comes out cool.
They say our water is the reason we have such good sourdough bread.
Because it comes from hetch hetchy it’s the best drinking water there is
Los Angeles is the only place I’ve lived where it’s common to go to a “Water Store” I didn’t know what that was about until I tested my water, you guys do have some shit ass water.
Da fuck? Grew up in west LA, never heard of a “Water Store”
They’re everywhere in OC. You take your 1, 3 or 5 gallon jug there and refill it.
SF used to go to Pulgas like that.
Do you ever leave your neighborhood?
Reminds me of Manila. You get water deliveries and get your jugs filled. If you got extra money, you put a small water tank on your roof.
Hetch hetchy. Our water comes from Yosemite.
Anytime I go to So Cal, I always fill up a water bottle of our local water and bring it with me. Then I get a little sad when I finish up that bottle and have to switch to their water.
Hetch Hetchy water is consistently rated one of the best. It's also filtered by granite rocks. There is no need for anyone in SF to buy bottled water. In fact, unless you have a contaminated well there's no reason to buy bottled water. In fact, a lot of bottled water is sourced from municipal systems. Head up to Mt Shasta and, for free, you can get the same water sold in bottles- right from the spring!
It’s now mixed with ground water in many areas. https://www.sfpuc.org/sites/default/files/documents/Groundwater-Supply-Project_FAQ_DEC2017.pdf
i wonder which neighborhoods specifically! the PDF just says it's not in the 'eastern side of the city'
Here is the map: https://sfpuc.org/sites/default/files/documents/GroundwaterBlendMap_MAY2017.pdf There was a post last week about the groundwater blend and quite a bit of people thought the Sunset and Richmond were unblended. They actually are. Good news is that it is only about .02% groundwater.
LA water takes awhile to get down there. Sun burnt. Always tastes like sand to me
Others have explained better than I can. Our tap water is incredible. When I visit my family in L.A., I only drink bottled. They may have sunny gardens and warm beaches, but I'd rather not have to hold my nose and chew when I drink water.
It’s the all e antidepressants and birth control in the recycled water. It keeps the frogs gay. 🐸🏳️🌈
We stole our water from a nicer place.
You drinking the water of the gods. In SoCal you're just drinking recycled agua
It’s better.
I love a cold morning where the tap water comes out refrigerated, cool yummy spring water mmmm
SF tap straight from the hetch hetchy. It's so good.
Depending on where you are in LA, your water is either from the Owens River, the Colorado River, the California Aqueduct or local groundwater. It is often a combination of these sources. Most of LA’s water sources are very mineral laden (the San Gabriels are some of the most erosive mountains on earth) as opposed to San Francisco or Oakland water which are primarily Sierra runoff with very little mineral deposit. Hetchy Hetchy has extremely low sediment deposit for a reservoir of its size because the Sierras are mostly granite. Colorado River water tastes nasty because it picks up so many minerals on its trek down.
Last time I visited LA (stayed in koreatown) I took one sip from the tap and switched to bottled. Tastes worse than Bangkok water which is actually unsafe to drink.
https://preview.redd.it/665c93err28d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b9816ebd098b21ec9771a6c2aca147102907399 Hetch Hetchy last year
Beauty!
The Hetch Hetchy reservoir is one of the greatest in the country. LA water is known to suck and SF is known to be one of the best in the US. It's no wonder it is a stark difference of taste for you. (And this is coming from someone currently living in LA and not being able to drink this nasty stuff).
snowmelt source and very little added chlorination
I thought the water in Japan tasted incredibly flat.
Different antidepressants from Southern California.
I knew it! /s
Potentially unrelated. SoCal water is gross af while we have the cleanest tap water on earth. However. I’ve heard faucet water in some Homes/apartments is grimey cuz of the old ass pipes.
Snow fall on mountain. Snow on mountain melt
Orange County was the pioneer in recycling waste water. I think they're still the largest utility to recycle potable water. It tastes horrible but I think their strategy has been to over filter and overdose it with chemicals so they can show stellar test results to show the world their over treated water is safe. They show off the numbers but don't talk about the taste. I used to feel nauseous every time I would visit friends down there because I couldn't stand the water down there. I started buying bottled water when I visit and I feel fine.
Yes, I go visit family in south Orange County and the water tastes like crap
LA has a lot of chlorine in their water. SFO and East Bay have better water!
You have now crossed the line and you can never go back. You have tasted the water of the gods and everything else tastes ......blahhhhhhhhhh. Except in some little town in Utah ...Beaver City.
It’s fresher
After reading this post…. And Googling where my city gets its water from (Hetch Hetchy). So damn delicious!
The first time I tried la/oc water I legit gagged.
Best tap water in the world
SF water used to be tastier but now it gets mixed with alameda county water.
we got that sweet sweet private aqueduct from Yosemite. tbh one of the perks of living here. NYC has nice water too
As a SF native who moved to LA… I miss the tap water the most 🥲
We have the best water running down from our beautiful mountains.
Yep, Hetch Hetchy. I had no clue either on why so I went down a rabbit hole also and figured it out. It’s the best water in the nation I’ve had so far.
LA water taste like milky paint water
We don’t buy bottled water unless they switch out (which they do sometimes). Tap water from the reservoir is excellent.
I’ve always felt like water from Hetch Hetchy tastes ever so slightly sweet, in a crisp and natural way, if that makes any sense.. when I moved down to the OC for college, everyone was using the tap with their reusable water bottles but I just couldn’t, I thought the tap water tasted a bit metallic and overall unpleasant. Spent quite a bit on bottled water those years.
O.M.G. Becky.
Inglewood has some nasty tasting water. I’m not sure if it’s the plumbing, but my stomach sank everytime I tried to drink it. It was so bad, I resorted to buying water from the grocery store. I grew up in the Bay Area and that water is hella good! Bang bang niner gang good
We get our water from the spring sierra nevada meltoff, through the hetch hetchy viaduct. A small portion of the city water now comes from the ground and is mixed with the fresh water. My part of the sunset district has the mixed water as of about 8 years ago. It stinks because we noticed tye difference immediately:( i’m 2 blocks away from where the fresh water flows:( I can only imagine LA water is not pure snowmelt.
If you live in SF and some parts of the Bay Area and Hetch Hetchy is your source, stop buying bottled water.
It’s that Sierra snow pack. LA gets shit water from multiple sources.
When I went to UCSB, I would fill hydroflasks and nalgenes full of tap water from home whenever I would go back for holidays. I savored every last drop when I would get back to school.
Too much chlorine in OC water, I can’t drink it down there.
Does San Jose get its water from a different source?
It’s direct seirra snow melt from Hetch Hetchy dam, that flows in pipeline to the crystal springs reservoir. Neither reservoirs allow any public use.
SF has water sourced from Yosemite valley, the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. They have begun to blend it with some ground water recently (2017ish). Buying bottled water in SF is kinda crazy because the tap water is probably better.
I always hear it’s supposed to be good (I guess compared to some other places?) but to me SF water tastes like chlorine - and makes me nauseous when I drink it on an empty stomach.
You learn something new everyday, I never knew about Hetch Hetchy.
I grew up in a part of San Jose that is now Cupertino, and when my mother told me the water came from Hetch Hetchy, I thought she made it up.
I’m up in the Sierra foothills east of SF, our tap water is all super soft rainwater and snowmelt, which gets piped down to SF as well. Yours is approximately 86% dissolved mineral slurry.
Hetch Hetchy filtered by lots of natural rock etc. it’s great. I could drink it by the gallon
Poop in the bay makes for great tasting water
The most delicious tap water!
At my work people sometimes pay $2 for a plastic bottle of LA tap water. The Heych Hetchy is free!
The Hetch Hetchy water is stored at Crystal Springs reservoir, which also collects water from the Santa Cruz mountains runoff, so it has always been blended
From a new resident here over last few years, Tap water in SF has a lite chlorine like taste to it (informed by the smell too). Very noticeable to me. We still use and drink it from a brita filter. I do wonder if I would feel differently having grown up with it as a child.
I lived in Southern California before moving to the Bay. The source of the water is different in some cases, and all the water has to be transported in viaduct or canals. A lot of it has to be treated more because of high concentrations of agricultural runoff.
Last week I hiked around Hetch Hetchy, the source of SF water. The water falls feeding the reservoir are spectacular. [Wapama Falls at Hetch Hetchy](https://youtu.be/kFTR_uSJKq4?si=yLvK2vPnzbtfw1XL)
Incredible! Looks kinda other worldly.
Orange water tastes like chlorine
Because it's different water?
As a young Scout backpacking all throughout my youth, we would savor the last of our SF tap water in our canteens since the treated and filtered stuff would be quite a bit different. Then when we'd get back to the vehicles, we'd enjoy a couple of saved bottles of SF water for our end of trip celebration.
Southern California is a desert, of course the water doesn't taste good.