Is Cloudy Tap Water Safe To Drink?

The other day, I came home in the early evening to find the water coming out of the tap looked like this: (i.e. cloudy)


I rang up my mum who was out, to tell her there was something wrong with the plumbing in the house. She said the water hadn’t even been running earlier; the water supply on the street had been shut down for a couple of hours for some construction work or something.

It seemed a bit odd that this could occur with no advance warning, and then result in cloudy water being emitted from the taps. I presumed due to the lack of notice, it wasn’t something to be concerned about. I mean, if something had gone wrong and it was dangerous, I’m sure we would have been informed. However, I still couldn’t bring myself to drink the cloudy stuff, so I looked online.

Apparently, water that’s cloudy is perfectly safe to drink IF it turns clear after you let it sit, for say, a minute or so. The cloudiness is basically due to air bubbles/pressure.

If I’ve poured a glass of water in the past and it’s been cloudy, I’ve assumed it’s been down to chlorine or some other chemical in the water that hasn’t been safe to drink. Or that I hadn’t let the tap run for long enough, and so I’ve discarded it.

But it turns out it’s not a chemical, simply air in the water. Once the cloudiness disappears, you do see little bubbles in the water. Odd? Yes. Unsafe? No.

You learn new things all the time.