Fontana, California

What is the Water Quality in Fontana, California?

[Updated: June 12, 2023]

Compared to other US cities, Fontana water quality ranks in the high-middle range for contamination excluding Lead.

Most of their 32 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.

• Arsenic is at very high levels: 82x health guidelines.
• Haloacetic acids (HAA5) are at extremely high levels: 56x health guidelines.
• Haloacetic acids (HAA9) are at extremely high levels: 297x health guidelines.
  • These are both byproducts of the chlorine treatment process most water supplies go through.

Let’s look closer at what’s in Fontana water.

What’s in Fontana water?

Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:

1. Arsenic – Potential effect: Cancer
2. Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 32 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

14 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.

Does Fontana have Lead contamination?

No, Fontana does not have lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2016 through 2018 showed concentrations of 0.0 parts per billion (ppb).

The legal limit for lead is 15 parts per billion. Being well-below this level is a good thing.

• Concentrations between 3.8 ppb and 15 ppb put a formula-fed baby at risk of elevated blood lead levels. Read more about the symptoms of Lead in water.

There is no safe level of lead for humans.

• The good news is that 99.99% of the lead can be removed.

See the What Can You Do? section below to learn how to filter out contaminants.

Where does Fontana’s water come from?

Fontana’s water comes from the East Etiwanda Creek – Santa Ana River watershed.

3 of the 7 EPA assessed water sources in the East Etiwanda Creek – Santa Ana River watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

• Prado Basin Management Zone – Impaired. (This is southwest of Fontana near Corona, CA.)
• San Sevaine Channel – Unknown
• Santa Ana River Reach 3 – Impaired

Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. These are in Good condition:

• Day Creek
• East Etiwanda Creek
• Hole Lake
• Temescal Creek Reach 1

Whether a water source is in Impaired or Good condition refers to the quality of these uses:

1. Drinking Water
2. Aquatic Life
3. Fish and Shellfish Consumption
4. Recreation

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

See below for what you can do to improve Fontana’s water.

Conclusion – What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Fontana can be surprising.

But there are things you can do in your home to clean up your water.

1. Test Your Water using Varify Home Test Kits or similar.
2. To Remove Lead and Other Contaminants In Your Home:

• Use Activated Carbon filters to remove most contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Faucet-mount filters work better than pitchers.
  • PUR and Brita are low-cost and effective.

• To filter out even more 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:
    • Aluminum
    • Arsenic
    • Bromodichloromethane
    • Bromoform
    • Chloroform – side effects
    • Chloromethane
    • Chromium (total)
    • DBCP
    • Dibromoacetic acid
    • Dibromochloromethane
    • Dichloroacetic acid
    • Dichloromethane
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
    • Hexavalent chromium – health effects
    • Molybdenum
    • Monobromoacetic acid
    • Nitrate
    • Nitrite
    • Perchlorate
    • Strontium
    • Tetrachloroethylene – dry cleaning fluid. See: Health and safety
    • Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
    • Trichloroacetic acid
  • Our recommendation: APEC Reverse Osmosis Systems

*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.fontana.org/27/Government to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other California Cities

California Water Quality Page