We all need water, and a lot of it, especially with so many people on the planet. Beyond keeping us healthy, our bodies just can’t function without it. But what if your tap water tastes off? Would you still drink it, knowing it might be a risk? More than half of Americans say no way.

Take Peggy Schwartz, 56, from Phoenix. She told the Christian Science Monitor that her daily life revolves around bottled water. “I use, for drinking, all bottled water and have forever,” she said. “But I have never had anything tested, I don’t know statistically if it’s good, bad or what.” Her switch happened suddenly, one day the tap water just didn’t taste right.

After the Flint water crisis grabbed headlines worldwide, NSF International, a public health and safety group, did a survey. The results? While 71% of Americans drink tap water,

More than half (55%) of Americans worry about contaminants in their drinking water.

Cities are supposed to give us water quality reports. But after Boston, very few cities have actually mapped where their lead pipes are. Before 1950, lead pipes were common, carrying water from treatment plants to homes and businesses. Today, we mostly use copper pipes, but cities often don’t know which old lead ones have been replaced.

Recently, Andrew Flett quit his job as an assistant operator at the water treatment plant in Garden Hill First Nation. He became a cargo driver instead. He told CBC News that he felt confident the water was safe and drinkable when it left the plant.

“It was severe with my daughter and my wife because when they would eat they couldn’t keep anything down. So I started boiling the water from our tap. They seemed fine after that.”

This led his family, and hundreds of others like them, to disconnect their plumbing. Now, their pipes don’t connect to the treatment plant. Instead, they draw water from storage tanks, which trucks refill with water from the plant.

“There’s like a film that settles at the bottom of every tank. It’s full of bacteria and you can get sick. It causes diarrhea, eating problems and all that,” Flett added.

Water quality, like many public services, seems to differ for different income levels. An AP/GfK poll showed Americans know this. In households earning over $100,000 a year, 6 out of 10 people trusted their tap water. But for households making less than $50,000, that number dropped to 4 out of 10.

It’s tough to put a number on how good water tastes. Boston, with some of the country’s oldest pipes, even won the “2014 Tastiest Tap Water” title from the American Water Works Association. Many cities like Boston use special chemicals to control corrosion, which helps purify water flowing through lead pipes. Flint, tragically, skipped this crucial step for three years. Over time, lead mixes with the water, poisoning those who drink it.

Just as the country reeled from the poisoned water in Flint, even scarier news came out from NBC earlier this month. A Government Accountability Office report found that 41 percent of the country’s schools hadn’t tested their water for lead. And 37 percent of those that did found high lead levels in their drinking water.

Even tiny amounts of lead in water are bad for us. It causes lasting nerve damage and permanent brain damage in babies and kids. Adults can end up with high blood pressure and other problems from drinking it. Even the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t allow more than 5 parts per billion of lead in bottled water.

With all these issues, authorities really need to check the water supply safety standards in every city. We can’t afford another Flint crisis. Then we’ll see if people are ready to trust their tap water again.

Related reading: Water is Essential for Seniors- Here’s How to Get Them to Drink More.