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EWG Statement, 03/10/2008

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NATIONAL SUMMARY

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CONTAMINANTS DATABASE

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Tap Water Quality Report The State of Ohio 1,321 Water Systems Serving 10,238,487 People

An Environmental Working Group analysis of tap water tests from 1998 through 2003 for 1,321 communities across Ohio shows 92 pollutants were found in drinking water across the state.

Pollution Summary

92 41	20 10	26 14	68 27	19 13	25 14
Total pollutants	Agricultural pollutants	Sprawl and Urban pollutants	Industrial pollutants	Water Treatment and Distribution Byproducts	Naturally occurring pollutants
Number of pollutants detected (2000 - 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): 92

Total population exposed above health-based limits: 9,655,568

Communities served water with contaminants above health-based limits: 766

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

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Contaminants found above health based limits: 41

Rank	Contaminant Name	Population Exposed (of 10,238,487 Total)		Number of Water Systems (of 1,321) Total
		At Any Level	Above Health Limits See Note	With Detected	Above Health Limits See Note
1	Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs)	9,634,334	9,163,021	674	456
		Measure of four disinfection by-products
2	Nitrate	8,047,220	1,084,163	651	21
		Chemical that enters water from fertilizer runoff, leaching septic tanks, and erosion of natural deposits
3	Bromodichloromethane	9,490,353	9,374,829	602	559
		Disinfection by-product
4	Chloroform	9,500,931	6,488,417	602	305
		Disinfection by-product
5	Nitrate & nitrite	6,431,213	0	592	0
		Chemical that enters water from fertilizer runoff, leaching septic tanks, and erosion of natural deposits
6	Dibromochloromethane	9,297,578	9,183,485	577	548
		Disinfection by-product
7	Bromoform	7,894,848	1,259,398	345	45
		Disinfection by-product
8	Barium (total)	3,497,109	8,362	303	9
		Mineral from drilling and mining waste runoff; erosion of natrual deposits
9	Total haloacetic acids	7,469,379	1,203,696	288	101
		Measure of disinfection by-products; refers to the sum of the concentrations of dichloroacetic acid, trichloroacetic acid, monochloroacetic acid, monobromoacetic acid and dibromoacetic acid in a water sample.
10	Dichloroacetic acid	7,469,379	1,500	288	1
		Disinfection by-product

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 Ohio		176
	Contaminants tested due to federal law:	97
	Contaminants tested in addition to those required by federal law:	79

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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): 5,729

Number of OH systems with violations: 942 (71.3%)

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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.