Ever wondered what’s in your tap water? Water districts in the Coachella Valley are among the thousands of water suppliers nationwide appearing in a new drinkingwater database released by theEnvironmental Working Group this week.
The Washington-based nonprofit collected data on local water testsfrom state agencies and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, andsaid 267 contaminants were detected in drinking water supplies across the country, including 93 linked to increased risks of cancer, such as benzene, 1,4-dioxane and nitrates.
For many cities across California, from Los Angeles to San Francisco, the database lists carcinogens in the drinking water such as hexavalent chromium and trihalomethanes at levels within legal limits but exceeding EWG’s own “health guidelines."
In addition to comparing the levels of contaminants to the legal limits,EWG’s researchers compiledhealth guidelines that are more stringent than state and federal water standards,drawing ongoals set by various government agencies as well as benchmarks the group developed on its own based on scientific studies.
In the Coachella Valley, the area’s six mainwater utilities all have tap water that meets federal drinking water standards. But the database shows that all of the utilities havesome contaminants in their water at levels surpassingEWG's guidelines.
For the Coachella Valley Water District, the area’s largest water supplier, the database shows various contaminants exceeding EWG’s health goals, among them the pesticide DBCP, arsenic, hexavalent chromium (or chromium-6), vanadium, radiological contaminants such as radium-228 and uranium, and trihalomethanes, a group of chemical byproducts that form when water is treated with chlorine and other disinfectants.
Steve Bigley, CVWD’s environmental services director, pointed out that the Environmental Working Group based its guidelineson risk assessments, which typically are calculated using studies in which lab animals are exposed to high doses of contaminants. By contrast, he said, the state and federal drinking water standards that CVWD complies with are set by regulators at levels intended to protect public health while also being “technically and economically feasible to achieve.”
“Drinking water standards in California are equivalent to or more protective than national drinking water standards that are established by EPA,” Bigley said. “CVWD customers do not need to purchase water filters or be concerned about the safety of their drinking water.”
While most Americans’ tap water meets federal and state health standards, the Environmental Working Group says many chemicals and other contaminants are found at levels that may pose health risks.
“We’re really highlighting that there’s more that goes into a legal limit than just health considerations,” said David Andrews, a senior scientist at the nonprofit. “The legal limit is a negotiation in some ways between what the limit would be if you just considered health impacts, and then there’s also economic and political considerations that go into setting a legal limit. Oftentimes there’s a lot of lobbying on behalf of industries that may be impacted.”
EWG has long advocated for stricter drinking water standards, and has released similar information in previous years. The group discourages the consumption of bottled water and suggests people consider buying household water filters to reduce the levels of contaminants in their drinking water.
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All five of the valley’s other main water agencies also had levels of chromium-6 and radiological contaminants exceeding EWG’s health guidelines. Like CVWD, Desert Water Agency and Mission Springs Water District had levels of trihalomethanes above the group’s health guidelines but lower than the state and nationwide averages.
The water agencies strongly criticizedEWG's methods and presentation of the data, accusing it of unduly raising concerns about drinking water that is regularly testedand deemedsafe by regulators.
The Environmental Working Group’s Tap Water Databaseis searchable by zip code and water utility, and includes data fornearly 49,000 water suppliers nationwide. The database shows water quality tests carried out by each water utility and submitted to California regulators, and also includes information from an EPA enforcement and compliance database.
The group cited that EPA database as saying Desert Water Agency was, as of earlier this year, “in violation of monitoring for contaminants or reporting monitoring tests to state agencies.”
But DWA disputed that, saying the issue dates to a “monitoring deficiency” notice from2013 when the agency didn’t collect water samples as required during a certain timeframeand that the state later incorrectly logged the notice as a “violation.”
Mark Krause, DWA’s general manager, said it was “reckless and irresponsible” for the group to publish erroneous information.
“Our state regulators confirmed they know of no reason that we would be reported as out of compliance,” Krause said in an emailed statement.
“We conduct thousands of tests on our water each year to make sure it meets all state and federal drinking water standards,” Krause said. “California has some of the strictest drinking water standards in the nation and world.”
Mission Springs Water District in Desert Hot Springs also criticized the advocacy group’s methods, saying neither the district nor state health authorities recognize EWG’s “health guidelines” as credible standards for assessing drinking water.
Mission Springs, like other water agencies, is required to publish an annual water quality report, which it sends to customers. The results show the water quality meets or surpasses all state and federalstandards.
“The bottom line is that the public water system is safe. It’s highly regulated. It’s more tightly regulated than bottled water,” said John Soulliere, the district’s conservation and public affairs officer.
He said the group’s database incorrectly stated the district was in violation earlier this year for its “monitoring for contaminants or reporting monitoring tests to state agencies,” and that the agency’s only error had been failing to take a nitrate sample in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Soulliere said later samples showed nitrates ranging from “non-detected” levels to well below the drinking water limit.
Soulliere also said it’s questionable that EWG’s website is riddled with pages promoting water filters.
“When you fear-monger about water quality… and then you sell filters, something doesn’t smell right,” Soulliere said in an interview.In emailed statement, he said EWG seems to betrying to “create fear to further its advocacy goals and to raise revenue.”
Monica Amarelo, EWG's communications director, said producingthe database,which required the work of more than 20 people over two years, wasn't done to make money but as a public service. She said the organization isn't affiliated with any water filter companies.
Levels of chromium-6
One of the contaminants that pops up regularly in the EWG database is chromium-6, a heavy metal that has been on California regulators’ to-do list for years.
The potential dangers of the carcinogen were highlighted in the 1990s by a court case brought by then-legal clerk Erin Brockovich against Pacific Gas & Electric Company, claiming groundwater contamination in the Mojave Desert town of Hinkley. After thecase gained attention through the 2000 film "Erin Brockovich," the California Legislature in 2001 passed a law instructing public health agencies to develop a drinking water standard for chromium-6.
California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment in 2011 established a “public health goal” for chromium-6 of 0.02 parts per billion —a level that researchers estimated as posing a “one-in-one-million” risk for developing cancer if people consumed two liters of the water per day for a 70-year lifetime. That risk assessment was calculated based on studies in laboratory animals.
State regulators adopted a standard for chromium-6 in 2014, setting a limit of 10 parts per billion. Water agencies were given until 2020 to comply.
But in May, a court ordered California to rescind that standard, ruling state officials had failed to properly consider the “economic feasibility” of complying. The State Water Resources Control Board will consider scrappingthe chromium-6 regulationnext week. The court also ordered the board to adopt a new limit for chromium-6.
In large portions of the aquifer beneath the Coachella Valley, the groundwater that's pumped from wells and flows to taps has levels of chromium-6 above the limit set in 2014, and it’s not clear how many wells might require treatment once state regulators set a new limit.
READ MORE:Agency to test cheaper treatment to remove chromium-6 from water
Water agencies say the heavy metal occurs naturally in the California desert, dissolving from rocks into the groundwater. Chromium-6 can also be released into the environment as pollution from sources such as cooling towers and industrial plants.
The Coachella Valley Water District is trying out a treatment method that involves using tin in the form of the chemical stannous chloride, which is added to the water pumped from wells and reduces the levels of chromium-6.
Bigley said the method has been tested and approved. In late August, CVWD plans to start a six-week demonstration, treating the water of about 1,500 customers in Sky Valley, Indio Hills and parts of Desert Hot Springs. The plan is to expand treatment to other wellslater on.
Other examples of contaminants listed in EWG’s database —but at minute concentrations below its health guidelines —include the industrial solvent 1,4-dioxane and the dry-cleaning chemical tetrachloroethylene. Both were detected in CVWD’s water at levels below the statewide average.
Small drinking water systems
The database also highlights the longstanding problem of contaminated drinking water in the Coachella Valley’s small drinking water systems, many of which supply trailer parks where impoverished farm workers live. It lists the contaminants found in the water of 18 small water systems, each of which provides water for between 25 and several hundred people.
Oasis Gardens Water Company, which serves more than 300 people in Coachella, had arsenic in its water over the legal limit in 2015, according to the database.
St. Anthony’s Trailer Park in Mecca, which supplies about 300 people, was also in violation of federal drinking water standards, the database says. Arsenic was detected above the legal limit consistently from 2012 through 2015, the latest year listed in the data.
Some of the valley’s small water suppliers —such as Amezcua-Garcia Water in Thermal; Palm Springs Crest and West Palm Springs Village in Desert Hot Springs; and Stone Creek Water Company in Palm Desert —were cited for violations relating to monitoring for contaminants or reporting monitoring tests to state agencies from January to March 2017, the latest period assessed by the EPA.
READ MORE:Agency pushes for safe water in low-income communities
In addition to providing a tool for people to examine their tap water, the Environmental Working Group says it compiled the data to help make its case for stronger drinking water regulations.
The main federal law that regulates drinking water is the Safe Drinking Water Act, which was enacted in 1974.
Andrews said he and his colleagues at EWG are concerned that in the more than two decades since amendments to the act were passed in 1996, the EPA has failed to set a new drinking water standard for a single additional contaminant.
“We’ve learned a significant amount about new contaminants that are occurring in drinking water across the country and what health impacts they may be having,” Andrews said. “So we would like to clear the logjam in Washington also and have an agency that can set truly health-protective standards across the country.”
Desert Sun Data Investigations Editor Jill Castellano contributed to this story.
Drinking water provided by CVWD meets all federal and state water quality standards. Water filters may change the taste of tap water, but they are not necessary.
Levels of arsenic at the seven parks cited by EPA in the past four months ranged from 14 parts per billion to as high as 83 parts per billion, well above the legal limit of 10 parts per billion, and thousands of times higher than the recommended state maximum, which is . 004 parts per billion.
The Coachella Valley relies on a large underground aquifer for much of its water, which local water agencies say provides a buffer from the drought conditions impacting the rest of the state. "Desert Water Agency is not experiencing a water shortage.
The level of hardness varies throughout the Coachella Valley, but is a moderate level in most areas. The level of hardness in tap water is determined by the amount of calcium and magnesium in the water, both of which are naturally occurring in the Coachella Valley.
For the latest quarter assessed by the U.S. EPA (January 2021 - March 2021), tap water provided by this water utility was in compliance with federal health-based drinking water standards.
The Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) relies on four sources of water to provide service to its customers: groundwater, recycled water, imported water from the State Water Project and the Colorado River via the Coachella Canal, a branch of the All-American Canal.
The drought in California and the American West has been worsened by rising temperatures caused by climate change. Scientists have found that the region as a whole, from Montana to California to northern Mexico, has experienced the driest 22-year period in more than 1,200 years.
Over 90% of the Western US is currently experiencing different severities of drought. However, California is being hit the hardest as it goes through the areas first megadrought in 1,200 years.
Nearly all of the water that is used in the Coachella Valley comes from a groundwater basin, or aquifer under the ground's surface. This aquifer is estimated to have a capacity of about 39 million acre-feet of water.
The District delivers 87,959 acre-feet of water per year to it's 1,000 square mile service area, from Sky Valley to Salton Sea communities. Drinking water, also known as domestic water, comes from the Coachella Valley's own aquifer.
A report released Wednesday, though, found more than 270 harmful contaminants in local drinking water across the nation, including in Palm Desert. The substances are linked to cancer, damage to the brain and nervous system, hormonal disruption, problems in pregnancy and other serious health conditions.
Between 1905 and 1907, due to an engineering accident, the Salton Sea formed in parts of the lower basin of Lake Cahuilla. Were it not for human intervention, the sea might have grown to the size of prehistoric Lake Cahuilla. Today the former lake bed forms the fertile regions of the Imperial and Coachella Valleys.
1. Switzerland: With strict treatment standards and superior natural resources, Switzerland ranks number one for best EPI. In fact, Swiss tap water is as pure as its bottled water – but 500 times cheaper.
Around 370,000 Californians rely on drinking water which may contain high levels of arsenic, nitrate, or hexavalent chromium – all of which can have acute toxic effects on humans if consumed.
Yes, it is safe to drink the water in the area around Joshua Tree and inside Joshua Tree National Park, however you will likely want to plan to bring your own water in with you into the park.
Overall, both tap and bottled water are considered good ways to hydrate. However, tap water is generally a better option, as it's just as safe as bottled water but costs considerably less and has a much lower environmental impact.
Record-breaking warm weather and little rain are factors there, with outdoor landscaping the largest use of water in the valley, noted CVWD spokesman Scott Burritt.
Most of the water we serve is high mineral content – some people refer to it as hard water. This is typical for systems that rely on groundwater. Many of the minerals in the water are things you would find in vitamins. The white buildup you see is likely calcium and/or magnesium.
The drought in California is something we've spoken about in previous articles, but it's important to understand that California is only one of a handful of states running out of water. These states include: Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Kansas, New Mexico and Nevada as well.
Over the next 20 years, California could lose 10 percent1 of its water supplies. Our climate has changed, and the West continues to get hotter and drier. As it does, we will see on average less snowfall, more evaporation, and greater consumption of water by vegetation, soil, and the atmosphere itself.
So it might appear that our planet may one day run out of water. Fortunately, that is not the case. Earth contains huge quantities of water in its oceans, lakes, rivers, the atmosphere, and believe it or not, in the rocks of the inner Earth.
If your local health department is not able to help, contact a state certified laboratory to perform the test. To find a state certified laboratory in your area, call the Safe Drinking Water Hotline at (800) 426-4791 or visit the State Certified Drinking Water Laboratories list.
In most parts of the United States and Canada, it's safe to drink tap water from public water systems. Tap water that's been properly filtered is equally safe as bottled water and provides you with essential minerals you may not get from bottled water.
In general, hard water does not pose a threat to human health. Calcium and magnesium are the two minerals most commonly found in hard water. Neither of these minerals are harmful to humans.
Coalinga's water comes from the San Luis Reservoir, about 90 miles north, and is delivered along part of the California Aqueduct, but the city's allotment of that water was cut this year.
Southern Nevada has 8 years of water reserves as state faces water cuts from Colorado River. Gloom and doom is what we're all used to hearing when it comes to our ongoing drought. You typically don't hear leaders talking about having extra water. LAS VEGAS, Nev.
The world's largest aquifer is the Great Artesian Basin in Australia. It covers 1.7 million square kilometres, equivalent to about a quarter of the entire country and 7 times the area of the UK. The Great Artesian Basin is also the deepest aquifer in the world.
The Ogallala Aquifer is the largest aquifer in the U.S. and includes nearly all of Nebraska and large sections of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. It is the primary water source for the High Plains region.
Summary. The Ogallala Aquifer is the largest aquifer in the United States and is a major aquifer of Texas underlying much of the High Plains region. The aquifer consists of sand, gravel, clay, and silt and has a maximum thickness of 800 feet.
You can bring in empty plastic (non-metal) bottles 40 ounces and under, according to the Coachella FAQ. Empty Bota Bags and CamelBaks are also allowed. If you need to buy some, it's $2 per bottle on the field. Also, you can trade in 10 empty bottles for one fresh one.
The most prodigious of the state's groundwater basins are found in the Central Valley where a structural trough forms an aquifer system extending from north of Red Bluff to south of Bakersfield, about 400 miles long and from 20 to 70 miles wide.
Our water resources face a host of serious threats, all of which are caused primarily by human activity. They include sedimentation, pollution, climate change, deforestation, landscape changes, and urban growth.
All domestic water comes from the aquifer/groundwater basin beneath the valley floor ranging from Palm Springs to the Salton Sea and has an estimated capacity of 39.2 million acre feet (an acre foot = 325,851 gallons) down to 1,000 feet (300 m) as determined by the U. S. Geological Survey.
“Drinking water standards in California are equivalent to or more protective than national drinking water standards that are established by EPA,” Bigley said. “CVWD customers do not need to purchase water filters or be concerned about the safety of their drinking water.”
An I-team investigation reveals that despite the statewide drought declaration and additional water restrictions, the Coachella Valley's water supply is dramatically better off than most other areas of California right now.
'with a population of 10 million, jakarta is considered by some to be the fastest-sinking city in the world and is projected to be entirely underwater by 2050. in december 2021, jarkarta was again submerged with parts of the capital 2.7m (9ft) underwater,' writes nash.
The Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) relies on four sources of water to provide service to its customers: groundwater, recycled water, imported water from the State Water Project and the Colorado River via the Coachella Canal, a branch of the All-American Canal.
We are pleased to report that our drinking water is safe and meets Federal and State requirements. The Village of Palm Springs routinely monitors for contaminants in your drinking water according to federal and state laws.
Not only can you soak in our water; you can drink it too. That's because we have under-ground cold water springs that are just as pure as our hot water springs. Think of it as hot and cold running water. Instead of turning a faucet, though, we pump the water directly out of the earth.
1. Switzerland: With strict treatment standards and superior natural resources, Switzerland ranks number one for best EPI. In fact, Swiss tap water is as pure as its bottled water – but 500 times cheaper.
Tap water, especially when it's not distilled, contains several chemicals that are bad for you and your plants. Your tap water contains things, like lead, chlorine, and pathogens. These are harmful to your plants and will cause problems when you're consistently watering them with this tap water.
Some people enjoy drinking sap fresh from the tree, while others prefer to boil it for a brief period to kill any bacteria or yeast. Since it is certainly possible for harmful bacteria to be found in sap, the cautious solution is to pasteurize it before drinking.
Palm Beach is a laid-back, upscale, and sophisticated town. The area is more controlled and has plenty of security, whether private security guards or police. The neighborhoods are relatively safe, with little to no incidences of serious crimes committed against locals or visitors.
Most of the water we serve is high mineral content – some people refer to it as hard water. This is typical for systems that rely on groundwater. Many of the minerals in the water are things you would find in vitamins. The white buildup you see is likely calcium and/or magnesium.
Thermophilic bacteria are those that thrive within high temperatures, usually between 45 and 80 C (113 and 176F) and are found in environments such as hot springs, peat bogs, and near deep-sea hydrothermal vents. One type of "hyperthermophile", Methanopyrus kandleri, can even survive temperatures up to 122°C.
Springs may be entirely safe and acceptable human drinking water sources depending on where they are located, the source of the spring water, the depth of the source water below the ground and how well the spring is protected from human or animal uses or agricultural practices.
Hot springs are a rich source of sulfur and its healing benefits include treating skin irritations and infections such as rashes and eczema. Sulfur-rich hot springs are also thought to help treat dry scalp, arthritic pain and internal problems such as menopausal symptoms and digestive disorders.
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