Philadelphia Water Quality Analysis
- 01 | Who Regulates Philadelphia’s Water Quality?
- 02 | Philadelphia Annual Water Quality Report
- 03 | Environmental Working Group Water Quality Report
- 04 | Contaminants Threatening Philadelphia’s Water Quality
- 05 | Are Philadelphia Schools Contaminated with Lead In Their Drinking Water?
- 06 | Does Philadelphia Use Faulty Tests for Lead?
- 07 | Where Does Philadelphia Get Its Water?
- 08 | Treating Philadelphia’s Drinking Water
- 09 | Testing and Monitoring Philadelphia’s Water Quality
- 10 | Smell and Taste of Philadelphia’s Water
- 11 | Should Philadelphia Residents Use In-home Water Filters?
Got clean water to wash down that Philly cheesesteak?
Philadelphia is on a mission to provide 1.6 million people with safe drinking water, but are they pulling it off?
The East Coast is notorious for its drinking water challenges, thanks largely to its old, failing infrastructure.
Keep reading to learn exactly how Philadelphia’s water quality is holding up…
The Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) is the public water utility in charge of providing the City of Philadelphia with drinking water and wastewater services.
PWD is also responsible for communities in Bucks, Delaware, and Montgomery counties.
They test Philadelphia’s water quality at more than 65 locations around the city to make sure it’s clean not only when it leaves the treatment plant, but also as it travels through distribution pipes to your home.
It’s their job to make sure that it meets the U.S. Environmental Protection Association’s (EPA) guidelines for maximum contaminant levels.
Every year, the Philadelphia Water Department releases their annual water quality report.
They test for about 100 regulated contaminants, from organisms like bacteria to chemicals like nitrate.
In the city’s most recent report, they found no legal violations and met all state and federal guidelines.
This includes testing for lead, but as you’re about to find out, that doesn’t necessarily mean your family’s tap is safe…
The Environmental Working Group is a non-profit watchdog group that shows test results of water utilities across the country.
For Philadelphia, they gather data from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, as well as the EPA.
Although the EWG agrees that Philadelphia is in compliance with all federal water standards, they have much higher standards for their own health guidelines.
In their most recent report, they found 11 contaminants that exceeded EWG health guidelines out of 30 total contaminants detected, including:
- Bromodichloromethane: 163x
- Chloroform: 67x
- Chromium (hexavalent): 19x
- Dibromoacetic acid: 10x
- Dibromochloromethane: 33x
- Dichloroacetic acid: 57x
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5): 322x
- Haloacetic acids (HAA9). 615x
- Nitrate: 17x
- Total trihalomethanes: 280x
- Trichloroacetic acid: 174x
Other contaminants detected at lower levels include:
- Dioxane
- Butanol
- Androstene
- Antimony
- Atrazine
- Barium
- Bromoform
- Chlorate
- Chromium
- Cyanide
- Fluoride
- Manganese
- Molybdenum
- Monobromoacetic acid
- Monochloroacetic acid
- Strontium
- Testosterone
Next, let’s take a closer look at the contaminants threatening Philadelphia’s water quality…
The rivers and lakes that supply Pennsylvania with drinking water face several contamination challenges, including:
- Forest clearing and development: Contractors are clearing trees for residential construction and natural gas drilling. This increases the presence of heavy metals in the water.
- Stormwater runoff: You may notice that Pennsylvania’s rivers run brown after heavy rains. That’s because the rain pushes contaminated dirt and sediment into the water and increases bacteria levels.
- Agriculture: Farms use large amounts of pesticides, fertilizers, and manure that ultimately makes its way into source water supplies. The runoff from agriculture contains pathogens, chemicals, and all sorts of nasty pollutants.
- Sewage Leaks: Farms aren’t the only source of nasty contaminants like nitrates. Sewage from septic tank leaks can enter water supplies and spread bacteria.
- Improper waste disposal: Lots of Philadelphia’s storm drains lead directly into the same rivers where the city gets its water. This means that when people throw away things like leftover paint and pet waste down storm drains, it quickly ends up in the city’s source water.
- Wildlife feces: Animals are cute, but they also poop. A single goose, for example, can produce over 1,000 pounds of poop a year and add bacteria to public drinking water sources.
Ironically, some of the biggest threats to Philadelphia’s water quality aren’t the result of careless human accidents, wildlife, or agriculture.
Instead, they’re the result of stuff that government officials have added to the water distribution system on purpose…
Here are some of the contaminants that Philadelphians struggle with the most:
Disinfection byproducts, or DBPs, are a group of contaminants that form when chlorine mixes with organic matter in water.
And yes, Philadelphia and almost all treatment facilities in the U.S. intentionally add chlorine to their water as a disinfectant.
However, this isn’t without side effects…
Studies show that chronic exposure to DBPs can cause liver damage, decreased nervous system activity, and even increase the risk of cancer.
Other studies show that DBPs may have effects on reproduction in both men and women, including sperm quality, menstrual cycle, fetal growth, and preterm delivery.
The EPA regulates two categories of DBPs: total trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids.
In the EWG’s most recent report, Philadelphia tested above their health guidelines by a whopping 280x and 322x.
Lead is an extremely toxic heavy metal with severe health effects.
Philadelphia’s water doesn’t test positive for lead when it leaves the treatment plant because it hasn’t been exposed to it yet…
Up until a few decades ago (1986 to be exact), it was common practice to install lead-lined service lines and lead plumbing in households.
In theory this is harmless… until the pipes get old and the inner lining begins to corrode, leaching poisonous lead right into your tap water!
Estimates show that roughly 20,000 Philadelphia homes contain lead service pipes.
Currently, about 10% of Philadelphia water quality samples collected from private homes contain some level of lead.
This is awful news for residents, especially households with young families because lead is highly toxic to children.
In fact, lead is so toxic that the EPA’s maximum contaminant limit for lead is zero.
Even at low levels, young children can experience severe side effects like:
- Behavior and learning problems
- Slowed growth
- Hearing problems
- Lower IQ
- Hyperactivity
- Anemia
Lead can accumulate and store in the bones over time.
During pregnancy, lead can then release from the bones and is soaked up by the fetus, leading to side effects like premature birth and reduced fetal growth.
Even healthy adults can experience side effects like high blood pressure, decreased kidney function and reproductive problems in both men and women.
Philadelphia water also tested high for Chromium-6, or hexavalent chromium in the EWG’s latest report.
Chromium is an odorless, tasteless metallic element found naturally in rocks, plants and soil.
Chromium-6 is the most highly toxic form of the metal and is not regulated by the EPA.
Some evidence suggests that chromium in drinking water may increase the risk of stomach cancer and reproductive issues.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of contaminants found in products like Teflon, non-stick surfaces, firefighting foam, and stain-resistant carpets.
They earned the nickname “forever chemicals” because once they’re in the environment they’re almost impossible to get rid of and take forever to break down.
This is unfortunate because studies show they are incredibly dangerous, and can cause health effects like:
- Lower fertility rates
- Kidney cancer
- Decreased liver function
- High cholesterol
- Immune suppression
- Hypertension
- Thyroid disease
A recent study by the Environmental Working Group tested drinking water in 44 cities across the United States, including Philly.
Philadelphia ranked sixth highest in PFAS!
A recent report found that dozens of public schools in Philadelphia are contaminated with lead drinking water.
This could be exposing at least tens of thousands of students to learning and behavioral issues caused by the toxic metal.
And the reports’ authors say this could just be the tip of the iceberg…
The city school board disputes the findings and insists that systems are in place to prevent students from drinking contaminated water, including installing new bottled water refill stations, and new filtration systems in the kitchens.
However, the fact remains that water foundations throughout the district are polluted with lead.
In an investigation by The Guardian, Philly was found to be one of several cities that uses faulty water testing methods for lead.
The report claimed that at least 33 cities across the country use water testing cheats to conceal dangerous levels of lead.
According to the newspaper, Philly is also one of several cities, along with Chicago and Boston, that use the same inaccurate water-testing methods that Flint, Michigan was sued for following the Flint Water Crisis of 2014.
The investigation also claims that officials asked employees to test water in their own homes after “pre-flushing” their pipes to clear them of lead before gathering the samples for the test.
Philadelphia gets its source water from the Delaware River Watershed, which also includes the Schuylkill River.
The watershed begins in New York State and extends over 300 miles south to the mouth of Delaware Bay.
The Philadelphia Water Department operates three treatment plants: Baxter, Queen Lane, and Belmont.
They process over 300 million gallons of water a day on average.
Here’s what the treatment process looks like:
- Gravity settling: After the water is pumped from the river, the sediment settles naturally in reservoirs and basins.
- Disinfection: They add sodium hypochlorite to kill harmful organisms.
- Coagulation and flocculation: Chemicals are added to the water to cause smaller particles to clump into larger ones so they’re easier to remove.
- Additional disinfection: They add sodium hypochlorite again to kill any remaining organisms.
- Filtration: The water is drained through filters to remove finer particles still in the water.
- Final treatment: They add phosphate to prevent pipe corrosion and ammonia to create chloramine so it continues to disinfect the water as it travels through distribution pipes.
The Bureau of Laboratory Services performs several testing services for the Philadelphia Water Department, including:
- Testing water at different stages of treatment to ensure that the treatment process is effective.
- Conducting tests at more than 65 locations around the city.
- Testing biosolids (water treatment byproducts) that are sold as fertilizer to ensure it doesn’t contain toxic contaminants.
- Monitoring pipes and concrete structures for integrity and safety.
- Research new methods to improve the city’s treatment processes.
Why does Philly’s water have an earthy flavor sometimes?
And how come other times it smells like a swimming pool?
The earthy and musty flavors occur when algae-type organisms grow in the rivers during the hot summer months.
Sometimes, these odors can make their way into drinking water, even after it’s been treated.
Other times, you might notice a chlorine smell in your tap water.
This is due to excess chlorine and chloramine in the distribution system.
Ironically, you're also more likely to smell this in the summer because the city adds extra chlorine and chloramine to kill the algae and reduce the earthy smell.
Even if the Philadelphia Water Department is able to meet federal at state guidelines, there’s still nothing they can do about the potential for lead contamination from household pipes and service lines.
Plus, Philly ranks sixth in the nation for PFAS, and treatment plants aren’t equipped to fully remove them either.
The solution?
The only way to ensure clean tap water for you and your family is to take matters into your own hands, but not all in-home filters are created equal…
Basic carbon filters that attach to your faucet don’t remove the worst stuff like arsenic and PFAS.
In order to get rid of the hard-to-remove contaminants, you have to pull out the big guns!
Reverse osmosis (RO) filtration systems can remove up to 99.9% of all pollutants.
Cloud Water Filters combine several stages of filtration, including sediment filters, activated carbon, ion exchange resins, RO membranes, polishing filters, and remineralization to leave your water squeaky clean and delicious.
They even use built-in software to track and monitor water quality 24/7 through an app on your phone.
Are you ready to enjoy pure, safe drinking water with your family?
