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Check your tap water- a new database shows you the water quality via zip code

Lubricus

Member
Just enter your zip code and pick the town you live in. It will show you the contaminants that are above the national guideline for safe drinking water and also shows other contaminants that are present either under the guideline or does not have a guideline.
City of Atlanta (30304) had 7 contaminants above the guidelines.

https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/#.WXoXAMeGO73

July 26, 2017 WASHINGTON – Starting today, the vast majority of Americans can learn about every potentially harmful chemical in their drinking water and what scientists say are the safe levels of those contaminants. EWG's new national Tap Water Database is the most complete source available on the quality of U.S. drinking water, aggregating and analyzing data from almost 50,000 public water systems in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

A disclaimer from a poster:
FYI, this should be added to OP:

First, I should disclose that I work in the Water Quality department of a major California water company so I am literally defending myself here but this site seems to be tracking your water quality versus the Public Health Goal (PHG), which is intended to be an ambitious goal that is often below the detection limit in the laboratory (meaning there isn't a laboratory method that measures that low). I just did a quick glance to confirm that the numbers on the website do match what you'd find in the publicly available Consumer Confidence Report but just comparing against the PHG and not the legal limits seems to be confusing for the consumer.....

What you should actually be worried about is if you water quality is above the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) which does not seem to be listed on this site. While the PHG is the level at which they can confirm that there is no health risk at all, the MCL is tje limit at which if you drink that water everyday for 80 years then you have about a 1 in a million chance of developing cancer from it. The MCL is also the limit that is enforceable.

And for the poster that mentioned being safe due to having a well, unfortunately that's going to have worse water quality due to not being treated, tested, etc. We get almost all our water from wells and it's usually pretty nasty in its raw form.
:
 

Izuna

Banned
qjSon93.png
 

JCHandsom

Member
Entered mine, said it complies with federal health safety guidelines.

Hooray?

EDIT: Looking at the Flint one, I guess that statement means nothing.
 
I have a well, so I hope I'm okay! o_O

You should have your well tested every year. It's good to have a baseline established in the event that your water quality changes to establish why it's changing.

If you have a shallow well, it's even more imperative to have it tested frequently as it's much more susceptible to surface spills/leaks/releases.
 

Verdre

Unconfirmed Member
I saw Chromium (hexavalent) and thought I needed to get Erin Brockovich on the case. But then I clicked the details and I'm barely above the guideline and WAY below the national level. At least I've got the least cancer.
 

Daingurse

Member
I knew the water out here in Goodyear, AZ was bad, but man we got fucking arsenic in the water. I can't hold all these carcinogens!
 

Damaniel

Banned
4 contaminants where I live, with all but one well below state and national averages (chlorates are really high here for some reason). Now if only we'd start fluoridating it like the rest of the civilized world...
 

Ernest

Banned
I'm in a fairly affluent neighborhood (I pay a shit ton in property taxes that go to the water district bond), and I got ELEVEN fucking ways to get cancer, and SEVENTEEN other contaminants.

I do filter my tap water, but I doubt if filters all that cancer. Am I dying?
 

Dan-o

Member
4 contaminants detected above health guidelines
Arsenic - cancer
Bromoform - cancer
Dibromochloromethane - cancer
Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) - cancer

5 other detected contaminants
Barium
Dibromomethane
Fluoride
Manganese
Nitrate

dammit.
All of these are above the state level, but below the national level, so... yay me, I guess?
 

NOLA_Gaffer

Banned
The town that I grew up in (70057) is the worst, surprisingly, compared to where I'm living now (70123) and where I work (70118)
 
Bromodichloromethane
cancer
✕
Chloroform
cancer
✕
Dibromochloromethane
cancer
✕
Dichloroacetic acid
cancer
✕
Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs)
cancer
✕
Trichloroacetic acid
cancer
✕
Hormones
✕

im gunna get cancer
 
Apparently our city water isn't as clean as we thought. Well I'll be fucking talking to the city council about this bullshit.
 

ZOONAMI

Junior Member
6 cancer contaminants in Minneapolis, all related to water treatment, all far lower than the national average. Think I'm OK. I have 2 big filters in my fridge, one Brita and one pur, not sure if they do anything to filter these out.
 
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