Advice on apartment water filters.

Kidsandliz went on a bit of a rant said
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I need advice on water filters or filtering systems for an apartment that are relatively cheap and people have had good experiences with. The choices out there seem really big and it is hard to tell what is good that is practical for an apartment (most things discuss houses).

The current controversy in my city is the state of the water. After 3 weeks without any water and then nearly 2 weeks more where we couldn’t drink it (after the storm that mostly made the news for hitting Houston) a letter the EPA sent to the city in 2019 has just come to light. Everyone involved is pointing the finger at everyone else why no one “knew” about it rather than focusing on how to fix it and pay to fix it.

In that letter they report numerous, repeated violations and problems in the city treatment plants and our water quality. These are things like unmonitored stations at the treatment plan, failure to keep records, failure to test, failure to report unsafe water issues to customers in a timely manner if at all, failure to address the issues, failure to fix in a timely manner components of the water purification system that breaks, consistent high levels of lead and other unsavory things (bacterial and other substances) in our water (to the extent that anyone knows due to failure to test)…The city insists it is safe to drink and there are no problems that affect the safety of the water even though the infrastructure of the water system is close to 100 years old, there are chronic problems with broken pipes all over the place (both drinking water and sewage pipes). Yeah… And the sky will rain money… Right.

I finally realized filtering the water will be cheaper in the long run than buying bottled water (which has its own problems with microscopic pieces of plastic - counts can be in the 100’s - in that). I am not happy I (and my poor kitties) have been drinking this water for 4.5 years with bacteria, lead, other chemicals and contaminants, etc. in it. These problems will likely not be fixed in my lifetime as no one wants to pay for it, the state and city are arguing about who pays… and it isn’t just that the water system is nearly 100 years old with a large number at any given time of broken sewer and water pipes - the city is corrupt in ways that make Chicago look good in comparison…

It is a 1979 apartment building (so likely some lead pipes) and I have little control over what goes on here. I can’t do anything that is a permanent modification of the water pipes in here. Likely I will need to keep quiet about anything I do (and thus will have to do it myself), unless it is just a manual filter of water from the tap into a pitcher.

I have read that a whole house reverse osmosis is the best choice but that is, obviously, not possible. All I really care about is water in the kitchen as I only live in two rooms and can bring drinking water into the bathroom. I need suggestions about what what might be my best choice that won’t break the bank, pros and cons… I don’t really want to remove the minerals and other “good stuff” that is in water, just the bad stuff (although I don’t know if that is possible). And fluoride does help protect even adult teeth so it would be nice to keep that in there too.

Any suggestions appreciated (and yes I am looking into moving out of this city). Thanks.