Charleston's drinking water ranked #4 in the nation

Image by Flickr user tim.perdue

A study conducted by the Environmental Working Group looked at water quality records since 2004, and the results pegged Charleston as having the fourth best water in the nation, for a city.

Read more stories on this subject in our water topic page.The group rated water utilities that serve more than 250,000 based on three factors: number of chemicals detected, how intense those chemicals were, and the highest average level for an individual pollutant.

Yahoo Green has a nice overview on the report and results.

You can get the full report over here, and the details on Charleston's water.

Now this good news about our tap water should be buffeted with two facts

First, while our tap water is great, our river and ocean water quality has many problems, particularly when it comes to mercury.

Secondly, and for some reason I'm having no luck with finding a link, Charleston's older homes were once subject to a nasty little problem that ruined the pristine water coming to them: lead pipes. In fact, many of those pipes are still there, only they've been coated with a chemical to prevent lead leaching. 

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