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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 Pennsylvania 2,176 Water Systems Serving 10,553,250 People

An Environmental Working Group analysis of tap water tests from 1998 through 2003 for 2,176 communities across Pennsylvania shows 96 pollutants were found in drinking water across the state.

Pollution Summary

96 44	18 7	18 12	73 32	18 11	21 14
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): 96

Total population exposed above health-based limits: 9,339,157

Communities served water with contaminants above health-based limits: 788

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: 44

Rank	Contaminant Name	Population Exposed (of 10,553,250 Total)		Number of Water Systems (of 2,176) Total
		At Any Level	Above Health Limits See Note	With Detected	Above Health Limits See Note
1	Nitrate	9,468,043	62,763	1795	77
		Chemical that enters water from fertilizer runoff, leaching septic tanks, and erosion of natural deposits
2	Barium (total)	7,280,876	78,176	1354	37
		Mineral from drilling and mining waste runoff; erosion of natrual deposits
3	Alpha particle activity (excl radon and uranium)	5,662,029	3,593	797	4
		From mining waste pollutants and natural sources
4	Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs)	9,280,273	8,827,090	445	336
		Measure of four disinfection by-products
5	Nitrite	420,028	1,146	262	2
		Chemical that enters water from fertilizer runoff, leaching septic tanks, and erosion of natural deposits
6	Total haloacetic acids	8,590,106	2,719,227	248	61
		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.
7	Arsenic (total)	1,494,919	1,494,919	230	230
		Metal that enters water by erosion of natural deposits, runoff from glass and electronics processing
8	Gross beta particle activity (pCi/L)	4,746,979	0	227	0
		Mainly pollutants from nuclear testing and industrial and medical instruments
9	Cyanide	378,955	1,663	122	4
		Chemical from steel/metal, plastic, or fertilizer factory pollution
10	Chloroform	2,141,688	678,609	108	31
		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 Pennsylvania		164
	Contaminants tested due to federal law:	86
	Contaminants tested in addition to those required by federal law:	78

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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): 11,645

Number of PA systems with violations: 1,820 (83.6%)

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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.