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NATIONAL SUMMARY

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Tap Water Quality Report The State of Kentucky 716 Water Systems Serving 6,167,104 People

An Environmental Working Group analysis of tap water tests from 1998 through 2003 for 716 communities across Kentucky shows 64 pollutants were found in drinking water across the state.

Pollution Summary

64 30	23 11	16 9	43 21	5 4	9 7
Total pollutants	Agricultural pollutants	Sprawl and Urban pollutants	Industrial pollutants	Water Treatment and Distribution Byproducts	Naturally occurring pollutants
Number of pollutants detected (1998 - 2003)			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): 64

Total population exposed above health-based limits: 1,887,529

Communities served water with contaminants above health-based limits: 182

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.

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Contaminants found above health based limits: 30

Rank	Contaminant Name	Population Exposed (of 6,167,104 Total)		Number of Water Systems (of 716) Total
		At Any Level	Above Health Limits See Note	With Detected	Above Health Limits See Note
1	Copper	4,716,030	102,479	340	11
		contaminant that enters water by corrosion of household plumbing systems; erosion of natural deposits
2	Nitrate	4,244,118	13,599	252	7
		Chemical that enters water from fertilizer runoff, leaching septic tanks, and erosion of natural deposits
3	Barium (total)	4,236,855	2,735	247	3
		Mineral from drilling and mining waste runoff; erosion of natrual deposits
4	Alpha particle activity (excl radon and uranium)	2,779,201	0	214	0
		From mining waste pollutants and natural sources
5	Lead (total)	3,283,346	168,469	172	26
		Metal that enters water by corrosion of household plumbing systems; industrial pollutant; erosion of natural deposits
6	Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate	2,549,089	209,899	101	28
		Pollutant from rubber and industrial chemical factories; leachate from PVC pipes
7	Arsenic (total)	924,743	924,743	78	78
		Metal that enters water by erosion of natural deposits, runoff from glass and electronics processing
8	Nitrite	947,346	14,019	77	2
		Chemical that enters water from fertilizer runoff, leaching septic tanks, and erosion of natural deposits
9	Thallium (total)	627,432	573,115	41	33
		Widely used as a rodenticide and ant killer; home use has been banned; used for speciality glass manufacture
10	Cadmium (total)	637,189	347,039	39	24
		Metal from corrosion of galvanized pipes; runoff from metal refineries, waste batteries and paints; erosion of natural deposits

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 Kentucky		81
	Contaminants tested due to federal law:	75
	Contaminants tested in addition to those required by federal law:	6

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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): 3,035

Number of KY systems with violations: 431 (60.2%)

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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.