While it’d be nice to comfortably believe everything a government or for-profit organization confidently tells us is true, that just isn’t the case. That said, one North Dakota resident took to Reddit to question whether their seemingly tainted water, which “comes out of the tap very yellow and cloudy,” is safe. After letting it settle for 15 minutes, the cloudy particles in the water eventually settled down into visibly brownish-orange flaky chunks. According to the local North Dakota water utility company, this questionable liquid is “safe to drink.”
However, many Redditors in the North Dakotan’s post think otherwise. “That’s disgusting. Wonder what it is,” exclaimed a top-upvoted commenter. “It’s a red state, I’m not surprised. Local government in red states puts no money into its people’s wellbeing,” remarks another user, referring to North Dakota’s political leaning.
One more observable individual points out that the particles in the photo’s water could be iron bacteria, a substance that is pretty common in tap water. According to studies at the University of Georgia, iron bacteria are not dangerous but are smelly and visually unpleasing. Still, no one in their right mind would want to drink water that has any sort of suspicious floaties in it, especially when it’s clumpy and brownish-yellow.
Everyone in OP’s post agrees as well: Don’t drink the water. When asking a representative from their North Dakota water company, they were told that flakes were “probably sediment from a broken water line somewhere.” The solution? “Just run the taps and see if it clears up.” Honestly, it wasn’t too promising or helpful advice, as just seeing that kind of foreign object in your water is bound to make anyone concerned.
In the end, hopefully someone from OP’s local water company fixed the “broken water line” if there was one. As to what the representative said regarding on whether the water is okay to drink, many would probably agree with this witty commenter: “Find someone from the water company that claims its safe to drink and within close proximity to you. Make them drink it in front of you.”
