Boca Raton, Florida
Water Quality in Boca Raton, Florida
Watershed: Boca Raton Inlet – Port Everglades
What is the water quality like in Boca Raton, FL?
Let’s dive deeper into what’s in Boca Raton water.
What’s in Boca Raton water?
Here are the top 4 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
- Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Radium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
These are four of the 14 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
These 4 contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
See the What Can You Do? section below for all of the contaminants you can filter out and how to do it.
Where does Boca Raton’s water come from?
Boca Raton’s water comes from the Boca Raton Inlet – Port Everglades watershed.
75 of the 83 EPA assessed water sources in the Boca Raton Inlet – Port Everglades watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:
- Acme – North and South sectors
- Atlantic Ocean – Lake Worth Inlet
- Boynton Canal
- Canal E-4
- Clear Lake
- Clear Lake Drain
- Dania Cutoff Canal
- Dubois Park
- E-1, E-2, E-3, and E-4 Canals
- George English Park
- Hillsboro Canal
- Holloway Canal
- Intracoastal Waterway – Pompano, Royal Palm Bridge, Broward County Central Segment, Broward County North Segment, Broward County Southern Segment.
- Jupiter Farms
- Jupiter Inlet
- Lake Clarke
- Lake Ida
- Lake Melva
- Lake Osborne
- Lake Worth Lagoon – Central, Northern, and Southern segments
- Lakeview Lakes
- Las Olas Isles Finger Canal System
- Loxahatchee River
- Margate Lakes
- New River and New River Canal
- Okeeheelee Park
- Pal Mar
- Palm Beach Stations
- Phil Foster Park
- Pine Lake
- Pompano Canal
- Snake Creek Canal
- West Palm Beach Water Control
Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. Commercial Boulevard Pier, Hillsboro Inlet Park, Lake Mangonia, Oakland Park Boulevard, Peanut Island, Sandoway Park – Delray Beach, and Spanish River are all in Good condition.
Whether a water source is in Impaired or Good condition refers to the quality of these uses:
- Drinking Water
- Aquatic Life
- Fish and Shellfish Consumption
- Recreation
Learn more from How’s My Waterway
See below for what you can do to improve Boca Raton’s water.
Conclusion – What Can You Do?
Information about water quality can be surprising.
But there’s no reason to lose hope. There are things you can do in your household as well as things you can do at a community level.
In Your Household:
- Use Berkey filters with activated carbon to filter out 11 of the 14 contaminants in your drinking water.
- Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Boca Raton water.
- Brita can filter 3 contaminants (and Lead depending on the filter).
- Note: We may receive a commission if you decide to purchase filters through links on this page.
- To filter out 10 of the 14 contaminants in your whole house, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your home.
- These are more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but can be more effective.
- They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
- Aluminum
- Dalapon – herbicide used on sugarcane and sugar beets.
- Fluoride
- Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
- Hexavalent chromium – health effects
- Nitrate
- Nitrite
- Radium
- Strontium
- Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
*Chlorination is an effective method of disinfecting/treating drinking water. You can then use a water filter to reduce the effects of chlorination byproducts to get the safest, cleanest water possible.
In Your Community:
Contact your local government officials and put pressure on them to invest in cleaner waterways and upgraded city water filtration and treatment.
Go to: https://www.myboca.us/27/GOVERNMENT to find contact information for your local officials.