Shrimp in your drinking water?

Invisible shrimp could very well be living in every drop of water you drink -- but that's OK, they're nothing to worry about.
A photo posted to the online sharing site Reddit has the Internet abuzz. It shows a tiny animal -- a shrimp-like crustacean called a copepod -- and announces that the reader found it in his New York City tap water.
"You swallow these invisible shrimp with every gulp of NYC tap water," trumpeted online blog Gizmodo about the discovery. Time magazine's website also announced the find breathlessly, exhorting New Yorkers to "drink up" -- but noting that the critters may pose a problem for many of the city's Jewish residents.
"Besides a serious 'ick' factor, the copepods are technically crustaceans, which means they aren't kosher for the city's large Orthodox, observant Jewish population," the site warned.
It's all true. There are, indeed, copepods in New York's drinking water -- and the reason they're there is that the city's water is superb for drinking. In fact, people across the country with excellent natural water supplies swallow invisible bugs like these every day.
Most copepods are so small -- barely 1 to 2 millimeters long -- that they're more or less transparent. And they can be found in most freshwater habitats, including the reservoirs that supply public drinking water to cities like New York.
"It's one of those interesting facts you learn about local drinking water -- but it's in no way dangerous," Farrell Sklerov, a spokesman for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), told FoxNews.com.
He explained that many cities filter their water, but if the water quality exceeds federal standards -- which New York City tap water does -- it doesn't require filtering, a process that would remove the copepods. Among other cities that don't filter their water are Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Sklerov said.
He said the copepods "pose no risk to human health. It's not something that's regulated because there's no harmful effects from them."
A representative of NOAA's Fisheries Services explained that copepods are a form of plankton, the minuscule creatures that form the majority of the biomass in the ocean and feed many animals, notably whales.
"There are areas that have blooms of copepods at certain times of year, such as Cape Cod bay in the spring," said NOAA's Teri Frady. "Right whales eat them, and that's why you see right whales near Cape Cod at that time of year."
They're also harmless for humans, though if you're disturbed, simply pass your water through an ordinary, over-the-counter filter.
Many people do have allergies to crustaceans