Port Arthur, Texas
What is the Water Quality in Port Arthur, Texas?
Compared to other US cities, Port Arthur water quality ranks in the middle range for contamination excluding Lead.
Most of their 22 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.
- Chloroform is at extremely high levels: 32x health guidelines.
- Chlorite is also at high levels: 13x health guidelines.
Let’s look closer at what’s in Port Arthur water.
What’s in Port Arthur water?
Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Chlorite – Change in blood chemistry
- Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
- Dichloroacetic Acid – Potential effect: Cancer
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
These are five of the 22 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
11 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Does Port Arthur have Lead contamination?
Yes, Port Arthur has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected in 2019 showed concentrations up to 13.3 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 filtered out.
See the What Can You Do? section below to learn how to filter out contaminants.
Where does Port Arthur’s water come from?
Port Arthur’s water comes from the Salt Bayou watershed.
11 of the 13 water sources in the Salt Bayou watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:
- Black Bayou
- Neches River – Tidal
- Sabine Lake, Sabine Pass, and Sabine River Basin.
Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. Two water sources are in good condition: McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge and Sea Rim State Park.
Learn more from How’s My Waterway
See below for what you can do to improve Port Arthur’s water.
What Can You Do?
Information about water quality in Port Arthur can be surprising.
But there are things you can do in your home to clean up your water.
To Remove Lead and Other Contaminants In Your Home:
There is one solution that beats Brita, PUR, and expensive whole house systems.
- It costs less per gallon.
- Needs fewer filter changes.
- And it doesn’t make your water taste weird.
- Use Berkey filters with activated carbon to filter out at least 66.7% of contaminants in your drinking water.
- Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Port Arthur water.
- Brita can filter 14 of the 22 contaminants and Lead depending on the filter.
- They will filter out Chlorite and Chloroform.
- Note: We may receive a commission if you decide to purchase filters through links on this page.
- To filter out 19 of the 22 contaminants, consider a reverse osmosis water filtration system for your house.
- These are typically more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but can be much more effective.
- They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
- Barium
- Chlorite
- Chloroform
- Cyanide
- Dichloroacetic acid
- Haloacetic acids – HAA5 and HAA9
- Nitrate
- Octadecanoic acid
- Strontium
- Total trihalomethanes
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.portarthurtx.gov/ to find contact information for your local officials.