Perhaps chlorine concentration?

For drinking water, I use a gallon-sized pitcher with a Brita filter and keep it in the fridge. Between the filter, and just letting the water sit and off-gas the chlorine improves the taste dramatically.

For watering your plants, just letting the water sit in a pitcher or some other vessel overnight will reduce the chlorine concentration enough that it won't kill your plants.

Well.. no fluoride no chlorine

I've had some pretty nasty municipal water too. OP did say that "assuming they were equal quality".

The power problem is easily solved!

Pick up a portable generator for a few hundred bucks, use it to run the pump when needed. Problem solved.

For a more robust solution, get a proper household generator installed that kicks in when the power goes out and keep your lights, heat and refrigerator going. It'll cost a few grand, but it'll give you peace of mind, and it'll keep you going for as long as you can keep feeding it propane.

For a more environmental solution, install solar and a storage battery. Larger up-front cost, but most solar installs pay themselves back in under 10 years (maybe even faster with the subsidies available now). You have to be a bit more choosy about what circuits you decide to energize with the backup battery, or buy a big honkin' one ... but they do pay for themselves in the long run.

Anybody living in a rural area needs to be prepared for situations when the electricity goes out.

I guess I’m just more optimistic on this point, although I respect your right to disagree. I don’t see this as being set in stone. Housing is a human right that’s worth fighting for, even if the odds are long.

Daily reminder that alcohol is the most socially destructive drug in the country and over 80% of domestic abuse cases have alcohol involved.

If you're in the valley, you're not on the mountain.

Basically, if you're tapping your water well above where any contaminants can get in (livestock, farming, industry, etc...) odds are you're drawing clean, tasty water.

If there's anything "nasty" uphill of you, contamination can become an issue.

This is already happening. Hiring in Vermont is an absolute disaster and theres plenty of reason to expect it to get worse and no reason to expect it to get better.

If the current gentrification trend continues its hard to imagine how VT will staff anything relying on local labor in ten years, if not sooner.

I can't choose so I can't answer your question OP.

My current water is from an artesian well. It tastes better than most town water, especially Montpelier's. Yes, I lose water when I lose power, but we rarely have an outage past 12 hours. It's not that big a deal. I seem to remember back in the day, Montp frequently had boil water notices and that was bottle water time.

Well water isn't free water. The water here is very hard. It also smells like sulfur. I have to buy and maintain a softening and filter system. I am seeing some new houses in my neighborhood who are drilling. Makes me wonder about the durability of our water table.

Let's not get into sewer vs septic............

In general a public water system will be much more regulated and tested way more often than anyone's well supply. So based on your assumption of equal quality, the peace of mind of frequently tested water would out-weigh a well in my mind.

From the outside maybe. Those are likely just the sort of dumpy Vermont rentals that would be crackhouses in most states but are considered acceptable housing here.

I'd like to know why our public water will randomly kill all my plants sometimes.

The answer, unfortunately, is no.

I love well water, but the incidence of cavities for kids on well water is so much higher. Water fluoridation is one of the great public health successes.

Plus replacing a well pump sucks.

and this

Drink from the well, water pressure from the town.. is that an option?

I'm on town water and it's fantastic. Minimally treated if at all, spring fed reservoir ... tastes as good as any well water I've ever had. Not to mention no loss of pressure during a power outage. ETA: the cost is not insignificant, water/sewer runs me about $1000/yr

Well. 100%. I am progressive but just look at how bad Montpelier is handling their water problem. Can’t trust the government with that.

Are they mutually exclusive? I lost several friends due to underage drinking and driving- decades ago. It can be incredibly impactful to a community to lose kids. The VSP probably saved a teen life or lives that night and they don’t deserve shade on this.

Spring box

Unless you have a gravity fed spring!

[removed]

Reverse osmosis system.

Can’t get there from here!

Well water every time. No water bills.