Provo, Utah
Water Quality in Provo, Utah
Watershed: Big Dry Creek
What is the water quality like in Provo, UT?
Let’s dive deeper into what’s in Provo water.
What’s in Provo water?
Here are the 7 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
- Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
- Dibromochloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
- Dichloroacetic acid – Potential effect: Cancer
- Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
- Trichloroacetic acid – Potential effect: Cancer
These 7 contaminants were analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org) and rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Note: Water quality information specific to all of Provo is not currently available. We’re using Vineyard City as a representative sample of the greater Provo area.
See the What Can You Do? section below for all of the contaminants you can filter out and how to do it.
Where does Provo’s water come from?
Provo’s water comes from the Big Dry Creek watershed.
There are no EPA assessed water sources in the Big Dry Creek watershed.
Ideally, a water source would be Known, Assessed, and rated 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 Provo’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 All 7 contaminants in your drinking water.
- Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Provo water.
- Brita can filter 7 contaminants as well (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 All 7 contaminants and have added insurance against some future contaminants, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your house.
- These are more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but can be more effective.
- They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
- Bromodichloromethane – health risks in drinking water
- Chloroform – side effects
- Dibromochloromethane
- Dichloroacetic acid
- Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
- Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
- Trichloroacetic acid
*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.provo.org/government to find contact information for your local officials.