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 Virginia 1,664 Water Systems Serving 7,409,321 People

An Environmental Working Group analysis of tap water tests from 1998 through 2003 for 1,664 communities across Virginia shows 62 pollutants were found in drinking water across the state.

Pollution Summary

62 33	15 5	17 8	49 24	12 9	24 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): 62

Total population exposed above health-based limits: 4,884,562

Communities served water with contaminants above health-based limits: 358

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: 33

Rank	Contaminant Name	Population Exposed (of 7,409,321 Total)		Number of Water Systems (of 1,664) Total
		At Any Level	Above Health Limits See Note	With Detected	Above Health Limits See Note
1	Gross beta particle activity (pCi/L)	2,816,645	0	556	0
		Mainly pollutants from nuclear testing and industrial and medical instruments
2	Radium-228	2,720,657	80	481	1
		Radioactive element usually found around uranium deposits
3	Nitrate & nitrite	867,940	50	390	1
		Chemical that enters water from fertilizer runoff, leaching septic tanks, and erosion of natural deposits
4	Sulfate	1,518,648	0	361	0
		Substance from natural deposits, industrial processes, and agriculture
5	Alpha particle activity (excl radon and uranium)	672,641	121	353	1
		From mining waste pollutants and natural sources
6	Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs)	4,847,485	4,749,452	293	166
		Measure of four disinfection by-products
7	Chloroform	3,946,894	3,696,322	269	125
		Disinfection by-product
8	Bromodichloromethane	3,929,142	3,893,254	233	212
		Disinfection by-product
9	Copper	211,428	19,906	193	31
		contaminant that enters water by corrosion of household plumbing systems; erosion of natural deposits
10	Alpha particle activity (incl. radon & uranium)	172,390	0	161	0
		From mining waste pollutants and natural sources

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 Virginia		146
	Contaminants tested due to federal law:	86
	Contaminants tested in addition to those required by federal law:	60

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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): 3,859

Number of VA systems with violations: 825 (49.6%)

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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.