EWG Investigation | U.S. Tap Water Quality Database

Health Limit Exceeded
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Legal Limit
• EPA set legal limit which balances health concerns and treatment costs

Tier 3 Control - past mining and drilling
• Closed or abandoned mines/plans/notices
• Mineral rich land that has been titled to mining interests (mining patents)
• Formerly drilled and pumped oil & gas Leases

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EWG Statement, 03/10/2008

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NATIONAL SUMMARY

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Tap Water Quality Report
The State of New Hampshire
727 Water Systems
Serving 804,151 People

An Environmental Working Group analysis of tap water tests from 1998 through 2003 for 727 communities across New Hampshire shows 80 pollutants were found in drinking water across the state.

Pollution Summary

80	Total Contaminants Detected (1998 - 2002)
8	Agricultural Pollutants (pesticides, fertilizer, factory farms) Nitrate, Nitrite, Sulfate, Thallium (total), Atrazine, 3-Hydroxycarbofuran, Bromomethane, Ethylbenzene
25	Sprawl and Urban Pollutants (road runoff, lawn pesticides, human waste) Arsenic (total), Cadmium (total), Copper, Hydrogen sulfide, Lead (total), Mercury (total inorganic), Nitrate, Nitrite, Antimony (total), Trichlorofluoromethane, Acetone, Naphthalene, MTBE, Fluorene, Phenanthrene, Dimethylphthalate, Diethylphthalate, Di-n-butylphthalate, Benzo[a]pyrene, sec-Butylbenzene, Xylenes (total), Tetrachloroethylene, Benzene, Bromobenzene, n-Propylbenzene
70	Industrial Pollutants Aluminum, Arsenic (total), Barium (total), Cadmium (total), Chromium (total), Cyanide, Hydrogen sulfide, Lead (total), Manganese, Mercury (total inorganic), Nitrate, Nitrite, Selenium (total), Silver (total), Sulfate, Antimony (total), Beryllium (total), Thallium (total), Carbon disulfide, p-Isopropyltoluene, Di(2-Ethylhexyl) adipate, Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, Hexachlorocyclopentadiene, Ethyl ether, Chloromethane, Dichlorodifluoromethane, Bromomethane, Chloroethane, Trichlorofluoromethane, Acetone, Isopropyl ether, Naphthalene, MTBE, Tetrahydrofuran, Fluorene, Hexachlorobenzene (HCB), Phenanthrene, Dimethylphthalate, Diethylphthalate, Di-n-butylphthalate, Pentachlorophenol, 1,2,4-Trichlorobenzene, cis-1,2-Dichloroethylene, 1,2,3-Trichloropropane, 1,2,4-Trimethylbenzene, 1,2,3-Trichlorobenzene, sec-Butylbenzene, Bromochloromethane, Xylenes (total), Dichloromethane (methylene chloride), o-Chlorotoluene, o-Dichlorobenzene, p-Dichlorobenzene, Vinyl chloride, 1,1-Dichloroethylene, 1,1-Dichloroethane, trans-1,2-Dichloroethylene, 1,2-Dichloroethane, 1,1,1-Trichloroethane, Carbon tetrachloride, 1,2-Dichloropropane, Trichloroethylene, 1,1,2-Trichloroethane, Tetrachloroethylene, Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, Bromobenzene, Styrene, n-Propylbenzene
12	Water Treatment and Distribution Byproducts (pipes and fixtures, treatment chemicals and byproducts) Cadmium (total), Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, Chloromethane, Benzo[a]pyrene, Dibromomethane, Bromochloromethane, Chloroform, Bromoform, Bromodichloromethane, Dibromochloromethane, Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), Vinyl chloride
14	Naturally Occurring (naturally present but increased for lands denuded by sprawl, agriculture, or industrial development) Aluminum, Arsenic (total), Chromium (total), Copper, Hydrogen sulfide, Lead (total), Manganese, Mercury (total inorganic), Nitrate, Nitrite, Selenium (total), Silver (total), Sulfate, Chloromethane
30	Unregulated Contaminants EPA has not established a maximum legal limit in tapwater for these contaminants Hydrogen sulfide, Carbon disulfide, p-Isopropyltoluene, 3-Hydroxycarbofuran, Ethyl ether, Chloromethane, Dichlorodifluoromethane, Bromomethane, Chloroethane, Trichlorofluoromethane, Acetone, Isopropyl ether, Naphthalene, MTBE, Tetrahydrofuran, Fluorene, Phenanthrene, Dimethylphthalate, Diethylphthalate, Di-n-butylphthalate, Dibromomethane, 1,2,3-Trichloropropane, 1,2,4-Trimethylbenzene, 1,2,3-Trichlorobenzene, sec-Butylbenzene, Bromochloromethane, o-Chlorotoluene, 1,1-Dichloroethane, Bromobenzene, n-Propylbenzene

80 36
8 4
25 11
70 28
12 10
14 9
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): 80

Total population exposed above health-based limits: 709,180

Communities served water with contaminants above health-based limits: 464

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: 36

Rank Contaminant Name Population Exposed (of 804,151 Total) Number of Water Systems (of 727) Total
At Any Level Above Health Limits
See Note With Detected Above Health Limits
See Note
1 Sulfate 681,291 0 524 0
Substance from natural deposits, industrial processes, and agriculture
2 Manganese 632,468 220,520 403 225
element from natural deposits as well as industrial use
3 Barium (total) 551,811 30 331 1
Mineral from drilling and mining waste runoff; erosion of natrual deposits
4 Arsenic (total) 343,873 343,873 240 240
Metal that enters water by erosion of natural deposits, runoff from glass and electronics processing
5 Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) 620,179 491,847 195 75
Measure of four disinfection by-products
6 MTBE 385,739 21,679 168 8
MTBE is a fuel additive used as an octane enhancer in unleaded gasoline; its ban or phaseout is in progress in 16 states as of December 2005.
7 Chloroform 613,589 450,035 163 43
Disinfection by-product
8 Bromodichloromethane 556,751 554,504 130 123
Disinfection by-product
9 Dibromochloromethane 461,598 461,598 112 112
Disinfection by-product
10 Bromoform 280,704 26,770 81 5
Disinfection by-product

View Full Table

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 New Hampshire 85

Contaminants tested due to federal law: 50

Contaminants tested in addition to those required by federal law: 35

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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): 1,227

Number of NH systems with violations: 361 (49.7%)

[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.