When our community water system (at my old house) sold to the Borough Water Authority, we went from mostly spring water to all well water. That was what drove the sale - the state was requiring significant changes in “public” water that essentially favored well water.
That was fine, even though the well water was harder than hard. Then, because the Borough water system was expanding, they added an additional chlorination station out in our area (making 2 on the system). Apparently the law requires them to show a certain level of chlorine in the water at the furthest points from the chlorinator to meet clean water standards. As the system expanded more, they’d increase the amount of chlorine so they could pass at the furthest point - that made the chlorine in our neighborhood really strong. Some days I’d turn on the faucet and the running water would smell like a public pool.
Do you know what they do when people start to complain about the smell and taste of the chlorine? They add ammonia to cut the smell. That’s the point that I started buying bottled water to drink - not only was the taste of public water poor, but they were adding a cocktail of chemicals that I just don’t think can be good for us. The government requirements for safe water has a checklist of what you can’t have in certain amounts, primarily geared toward bacteria and only covering a few chemicals... Luckily, where I live now I have my own well, which we treat with UV as a precaution - it tastes great, makes great coffee, and doesn't leave lime deposits on everything. I rarely buy bottled water now.
Hmmmm ... I wonder how much it costs to process all that $h!t and p!$$ that becomes tap water?