The Free Tampa Tap Report

The tests your water passes — and the ones it doesn't take

Every utility above meets the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. We will never tell you your city water is unsafe, because on every regulated contaminant, it isn't. Here's what the legal tests don't settle, honestly framed:

• Chloramine taste and smell. Every large Tampa Bay utility disinfects with chloramine (chlorine + ammonia). It's safe, it's deliberate — and it's the "pool" taste and shower smell. Removing it well takes catalytic carbon; the standard carbon in budget filters handles plain chlorine but struggles with chloramine.
• Disinfection byproducts (TTHMs). A regulated side effect of keeping water disinfected. Every utility above is within the federal limit — some run closer to it than others (see your card). Carbon reduces them at every tap; reverse osmosis polishes them out of your drinking water.
• Trace PFAS. The newest federal limits are still phasing in this decade. Where your utility has detections, your card says so with the utility's own framing. An under-sink reverse-osmosis system removes 90–99% at the tap where you drink and cook — the targeted fix, not a whole-home scare pitch.
• Lead from your own plumbing. The utility tests the supply, not your pipes. Homes built before the late 1980s can pick up lead from old solder and fixtures on the way to the glass — another job reverse osmosis does at the drinking tap.
• Hardness. Scale, spots, stiff laundry. It's real, it's annoying — and it is not a health problem, and we won't pretend it is. Softening is a comfort upgrade you choose because you want the feel, not something you need for safety.

That's the whole picture. If you want it fixed, the honest fix is below — and if you only need part of it, we'll tell you that too.