用于饮用水的铜管可以追溯到19世纪末。由于其耐腐蚀性以及易于制造和安装，铜已经取代了价格具有竞争力的较小管道尺寸的替代材料。迄今为止，在工业化国家的饮用水服务中，铜几乎占所有管道安装量的80%。仅在美国，每年就安装了超过5亿英尺长的铜管。 本文讨论了与以地下水为水源的中小型系统有关的铜腐蚀问题。

The use of copper tubes for drinking water application dates back to the late 19th century. Due to its corrosion resistance nature and ease of manufacturing and installation copper has displaced alternative materials for smaller pipe sizes that are competitively priced. To date copper accounts for almost 80 percent of all pipes installed in drinking water service in the industrialized countries. This accounts to well over 500 million linear feet of copper tubes installed each year in the United States alone. This paper discusses copper corrosion issues related to small and medium sized systems that use groundwater as the source.