Colton, California

What is the Water Quality in Colton, California?

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

Most of their 23 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.

• Arsenic is at extremely high levels: 82x health guidelines.

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

What’s in Colton 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. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Nitrate – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 23 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

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

Does Colton have Lead contamination?

No, Colton does not currently have lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2014 through 2016 showed concentrations of 0.0 parts per billion.

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 Colton’s water come from?

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

2 of the 5 water sources in the East Etiwanda Creek – Santa Ana River watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These are:

• San Sevaine Channel – Unknown condition
• Santa Ana River, Reach 3 – Impaired condition (both aquatic life and recreation)

Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. Day Creek, Hole Lake, and Temescal Creek are in Good Condition

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

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

What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Colton 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 75% of the contaminants in your drinking water. (Berkey Light and Travel Berkey are the only types available in California.)
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Colton water.
  • Brita can filter 8 of the 23 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 20 of the 23 contaminants, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your house.
  • These are typically more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but are much more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • Arsenic
    • Chloroform
    • Chromium (hexavalent)
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids (HAA5)
    • Nitrate
    • Nitrite
    • Strontium
    • Uranium

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.ci.colton.ca.us/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other California Cities

California Water Quality Page