National Drinking Water Database
City of Emida - Santa, ID
Serves 85 people - Test data available: 2005-2009
This drinking water quality report shows results of tests conducted by the water utility and provided to the Environmental Working Group (EWG) by the Department of Health and Welfare- Division of Environmental Quality. It is part of EWG's national database that includes 47,667 drinking water utilities and 20 million test results. Water utilities nationwide detected more than 300 pollutants between 2004 and 2009. More than half of these chemicals are unregulated, legal in any amount. Despite this widespread contamination, the federal government invests few resources to protecting rivers, reservoirs, and groundwater from pollution in the first place. The information below summarizes test results for this utility and lists potential health concerns.
Contaminants Exceeding Health Guidelines
Other Detected Contaminants
| Contaminant | Average/ Maximum Result | Health Limit Exceeded | Legal Limit Exceeded | Testing History -Tested  -Detected  -Over Health Guidelines  -Over Legal Limit* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barium (total)Barium is a mineral that enters drinking water through drilling and mining waste runoff, discharges from chemical industries and erosion of natural deposits. | 10 ppb 10 ppb | No 700 ppb | No 2000 ppb |  |
| CopperCopper is a naturally occuring metal and drinking water contaminant that enters tap water by corrosion of household plumbing systems and erosion of natural deposits. | 93 ppb 93 ppb | No 300 ppb | No 1000 ppb | |
| Alpha particle activity (incl. radon & uranium)Alpha particles are a form of radiation associated with mining waste pollutants and natural sources. | 4.08 pCi/L 4.08 pCi/L | No | No 15 pCi/L | |
| NOTE: Each dot in the above graph represents one month. * Water utilities are noted as exceeding the legal limit if any test is above the maximum contaminant level (MCL). Most MCLs are based on annual averages so exceeding the MCL for one test does not necessarily indicate that the system is out of compliance. | ||||
Contaminants Not Detected - 44 chemicals
1,1,1-Trichloroethane, 1,1,2-Trichloroethane, 1,1-Dichloroethylene, 1,2,4-Trichlorobenzene, 1,2-Dichloroethane, 1,2-Dichloropropane, Aluminum, Antimony (total), Arsenic (total), Benzene, Beryllium (total), Bromodichloromethane, Bromoform, Cadmium (total), Carbon tetrachloride, Chloroform, Chromium (total), cis-1,2-Dichloroethylene, Combined Uranium (mg/L), Combined Uranium (pCi/L), Dibromochloromethane, Dichloromethane (methylene chloride), Ethylbenzene, Foaming agents (surfactants), Lead (total), Manganese, Mercury (total inorganic), Monochlorobenzene (Chlorobenzene), Nitrate, Nitrate & nitrite, Nitrite, o-Dichlorobenzene, p-Dichlorobenzene, Selenium (total), Silver (total), Styrene, Tetrachloroethylene, Thallium (total), Toluene, Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), trans-1,2-Dichloroethylene, Trichloroethylene, Vinyl chloride, Xylenes (total)
Pollution Summary
| 7 | Total Contaminants Detected (2005 - 2009) Barium (total), Copper, Alpha particle activity (excl radon and uranium), Alpha particle activity (incl. radon & uranium), Combined Radium (-226 & -228), Radium-226, Radium-228 |
| 0 | Agricultural Pollutants (pesticides, fertilizer, factory farms) |
| 1 | Sprawl and Urban Pollutants (road runoff, lawn pesticides, human waste) |
| 6 | Industrial Pollutants Barium (total), Alpha particle activity (excl radon and uranium), Alpha particle activity (incl. radon & uranium), Combined Radium (-226 & -228), Radium-226, Radium-228 |
| 0 | Water Treatment and Distribution Byproducts (pipes and fixtures, treatment chemicals and byproducts) |
| 7 | Naturally Occurring (naturally present but increased for lands denuded by sprawl, agriculture, or industrial development) Barium (total), Copper, Alpha particle activity (excl radon and uranium), Alpha particle activity (incl. radon & uranium), Combined Radium (-226 & -228), Radium-226, Radium-228 |
EPA Violation Summary
| Violation Category | Number of Violations |
|---|---|
| Monitoring (click see violations) | 7 |
Information on violations is drawn directly from EPA's national violations database in the Agency's Safe Drinking Water Information System. Analyses by others have raised questions about the quality of the information in EPA's database. For the purposes of this investigation, EWG is not showing below or including in our analyses, those violations for individual water suppliers that occurred on days for which the total number of violations assigned by EPA to that water supplier was greater than 20. This criteria was based on common characteristics of incorrect violations data as identified by water utilities, from a review of EPA's violations data by several hundred utilities prior to the release of EWG's investigation.