– why doesn’t the water in our pipes get bacteria/viruses in it?

668 views

It seems like you would get pretty nasty germs happily living in our plumbing (especially untreated well water).

I think about the water that can sit for prolonged periods in hot water tanks, stagnant water in dead end sections of the plumbing system (unused outside faucet etc), and the wet oxygen rich environment inside the faucet ends.

Yet you almost never hear about people getting sick from their water🤷🏽‍♂️

In: 1670

20 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The water that enters the pipes from the water treatment plants doesn’t have any bacteria in it. It’s cleaned very rigourously, and a (small, extremely safe) amount of antibacterial chemicals are put into the water to make it doubly sure.

Once it’s in the pipes, there’s no way for bacteria to get in there. Pipes are solid. Plus, pressurised running pure water with antibac in it is a difficult environment for bacteria to successfully colonise. Even if a small amount of bacteria gets in there, it likely won’t find much to eat and will likely die soon.

You are viewing 1 out of 20 answers, click here to view all answers.