What's Up with Airline Drinking Water?

In 2004, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) conducted water sampling on 327 randomly selected domestic and international airlines. Fifteen percent of the aircraft sampled were found to contain coliform bacteria and at least one was found to contain Escherichia coli in their water systems. These findings led the EPA to order U.S. airlines to test water from each plane in their fleet at least once per year to ensure that passengers are not at risk for a waterborne illness.