Public health

Coronavirus doesn’t jeopardize tap water, but it might be carried in raw sewage

Brian Wright, 22, picks up bottled water out of a shopping cart while much of the bottled water has already been sold for the day at the Stater Bros. market in Rancho Cucamonga Monday afternoon March 16, 2020. Health, evnironmental and water officials say tap water is entirely safe from the new coronavirus because of mandatory treatment already in place. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Bottled water has been disappearing from store shelves as fast as toilet paper. And, like toilet paper, there’s no practical reason to stockpile bottled water.

“People need to stop hoarding water,” said Damon Micalizzi of the Municipal Water District of Orange County. “Your tap water is regulated more strictly than any bottled water you buy.”

Tap water is treated specifically to remove infectants like the new coronavirus, which “is a type of virus that is particularly susceptible to disinfection and standard treatment,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website.

But what about streams, lakes, bays and oceans? What about sewage getting into those?

In addition to the websites of the EPA, the Centers for Disease Control and the Surfrider Foundation, the Southern California News Group reached out local water and […]

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