National Drinking Water Database
Pawc Nesbitt - Wilkes Barre, PA
Serves 58,278 people - Test data available: 2004-2009
This drinking water quality report shows results of tests conducted by the water utility and provided to the Environmental Working Group (EWG) by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. 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
| Contaminant | Average/ Maximum Result | Health Limit Exceeded | Legal Limit Exceeded | Testing History -Tested  -Detected  -Over Health Guidelines  -Over Legal Limit* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total haloacetic acids (HAAs)Total haloacetic acids refers to the sum of the concentrations of five related disinfection byproducts in a water sample: dichloroacetic acid, trichloroacetic acid, monochloroacetic acid, monobromoacetic acid and dibromoacetic acid. | 13.67 ppb 25.5 ppb | Yes 0.7 ppb | No 60 ppb |  |
| Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs)Total trihalomethanes constitute the sum of four disinfection byproducts: chloroform, bromodichloromethane, dibromochloromethane, and bromoform. | 16.69 ppb 26.3 ppb | Yes 9.8 ppb | No 80 ppb | |
| 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. | ||||
Other Detected Contaminants
| Contaminant | Average/ Maximum Result | Health Limit Exceeded | Legal Limit Exceeded | Testing History-Tested -Detected -Over Health Guidelines -Over Legal Limit* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NitrateNitrate enters drinking water sources from fertilizer runoff, leaching septic tanks, and erosion of natural deposits; it is also emitted by chemical, petrochemical and metal-finishing industries. | 0.13 ppm 0.22 ppm | No 10 ppm | No 10 ppm | |
| StyreneStyrene is a pollutant from plastics, rubber and other industrial chemical factories and from landfill leachate. | 0.07 ppb 0.6 ppb | No 100 ppb | No 100 ppb | |
| 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 - 28 chemicals
1,1,1-Trichloroethane, 1,1,2-Trichloroethane, 1,1-Dichloroethylene, 1,2 Dibromo-3-chloropropane (DBCP), 1,2,4-Trichlorobenzene, 1,2-Dichloroethane, 1,2-Dichloropropane, Arsenic (total), Benzene, Benzo[a]pyrene, Carbon tetrachloride, cis-1,2-Dichloroethylene, Di(2-Ethylhexyl) adipate, Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, Dichloromethane (methylene chloride), Ethylbenzene, Hexachlorocyclopentadiene, Monochlorobenzene (Chlorobenzene), o-Dichlorobenzene, p-Dichlorobenzene, Pentachlorophenol, Simazine, Tetrachloroethylene, Toluene, trans-1,2-Dichloroethylene, Trichloroethylene, Vinyl chloride, Xylenes (total)
Pollution Summary
| 4 | Total Contaminants Detected (2004 - 2009) Nitrate, Total haloacetic acids (HAAs), Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), Styrene |
| 1 | Agricultural Pollutants (pesticides, fertilizer, factory farms) |
| 1 | Sprawl and Urban Pollutants (road runoff, lawn pesticides, human waste) |
| 2 | Industrial Pollutants |
| 2 | Water Treatment and Distribution Byproducts (pipes and fixtures, treatment chemicals and byproducts) Total haloacetic acids (HAAs), Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) |
| 1 | Naturally Occurring (naturally present but increased for lands denuded by sprawl, agriculture, or industrial development) |
EPA Violation Summary
No violations were reported for this system since 2004.
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.