EWG INVESTIGATION

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EWG Statement, 03/10/2008

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NATIONAL SUMMARY

Quality Varies Across the U.S.

CONTAMINANTS DATABASE

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Tap Water Quality Report The State of Alabama 619 Water Systems Serving 5,187,047 People

An Environmental Working Group analysis of tap water tests from 1998 through 2003 for 619 communities across Alabama shows 63 pollutants were found in drinking water across the state.

Pollution Summary

63 28	17 6	14 6	46 20	10 6	17 4
Total pollutants	Agricultural pollutants	Sprawl and Urban pollutants	Industrial pollutants	Water Treatment and Distribution Byproducts	Naturally occurring pollutants
Number of pollutants detected (1998 - 2002)			Over health based limits

NOTE: Health based limits included in this analysis include enforceable drinking water limits (called Maximum Contaminant Limits, or MCLs) as well as governmental, non-enforceable health guidelines, such as Maximum Contaminant Limit Goals (MCLGs), lifetime health advisory levels, one-day and ten-day advisory levels to protect children from non-cancer health endpoints, and other government-established health guidelines for tap water contaminants.

Health Summary

The federal government has set standards for 80 chemical pollutants in tap water, balancing health concerns and treatment costs.

Contaminants found in state tap water (1998-2003): 63

Total population exposed above health-based limits: 3,114,821

Communities served water with contaminants above health-based limits: 162

Health effects or target organs of contaminants found: Cardiovascular or Blood Toxicity, Cancer, Developmental Toxicity, Endocrine Toxicity, Immunotoxicity, Kidney Toxicity, Gastrointestinal or Liver Toxicity, Neurotoxicity, Reproductive Toxicity, Respiratory Toxicity, and Skin Sensitivity.

[View Details]

Contaminants found above health based limits: 28

Rank	Contaminant Name	Population Exposed (of 5,187,047 Total)		Number of Water Systems (of 619) Total
		At Any Level	Above Health Limits See Note	With Detected	Above Health Limits See Note
1	Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs)	3,798,494	2,523,914	238	79
		Measure of four disinfection by-products
2	Chloroform	3,590,504	1,887,103	223	61
		Disinfection by-product
3	Bromodichloromethane	3,584,414	2,476,300	200	109
		Disinfection by-product
4	Dibromochloromethane	3,376,309	1,856,898	156	84
		Disinfection by-product
5	Bromoform	1,616,634	14,433	66	4
		Disinfection by-product
6	Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate	424,902	5,850	45	1
		Pollutant from rubber and industrial chemical factories; leachate from PVC pipes
7	Manganese	256,181	15,075	37	5
		element from natural deposits as well as industrial use
8	Aluminum	942,164	27,837	31	3
		Metal from metal refineries and mining operations
9	Tetrachloroethylene	443,945	418,493	19	18
		Pollutant from dry cleaning and various industrial factories
10	Trichloroethylene	791,359	301,173	18	5
		Pollutant from metal degreasing sites

View Full Table

NOTE: Health based limits included in this analysis include enforceable drinking water limits (called Maximum Contaminant Limits, or MCLs) as well as governmental, non-enforceable health guidelines, such as Maximum Contaminant Limit Goals (MCLGs), lifetime health advisory levels, one-day and ten-day advisory levels to protect children from non-cancer health endpoints, and other government-established health guidelines for tap water contaminants.

Testing Summary

The federal government has set standards for some of the pollutants found in tap water supplies.

Contaminants reported as tested by water suppliers in Alabama		125
	Contaminants tested due to federal law:	74
	Contaminants tested in addition to those required by federal law:	51

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Violations Summary

According to EPA, in 2003 6% of America's public water systems reported one or more violations of a health-based drinking water standard, and 26% reported significant violations of either monitoring and reporting requirements or health-based standards.

Reported violations (1998 - 2003): 776

Number of AL systems with violations: 292 (47.2%)

[View Details]

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.