Is Detroit Water Contaminated?
Detroit water quality ranks in the low range for contaminants.
- For reference, Miramar, Florida has 75 contaminants. (The most of any U.S. city over 50,000.)
- Rochester Hills, Michigan has 5.
- Note: These are both outliers.
With a total of 10 contaminants in your drinking water, 5 of those exceed health guidelines.
Drinking unfiltered water from Detroit water sources could be hazardous to your health.
Let’s look closer at Detroit water quality.
Detroit Water Contamination
Detroit has a total of 10 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
50% of these contaminants are rated as exceeding health guidelines.
They include things like Radium and various byproducts of chlorination.
Most of the contaminants pose a risk of Cancer if allowed to stay in your drinking water.
Lead in Detroit Water
Detroit drinking water has lead in it.
90 percent of samples taken from Detroit water sources had a lead concentration of 4.4 parts per billion (ppb) or less.
For comparison:
Lead concentrations of 3.9 ppb to 15 ppb “put a formula-fed baby at risk of elevated blood lead levels.” (ewg.org)
Here are a few of the lead poisoning symptoms for children under 6:
- Abdominal Pain
- Developmental Delay
- Learning Difficulties
- Fatigue
- Weight loss
- Irritability
- Hearing loss
There is no safe level of lead for humans.
So, What Can You Do?
Information about water quality can be surprising.
There are things you can do today to keep you and your family safe and healthy.
In Your Household:
Use Berkey water filters with activated carbon to filter out 9 of the 10 contaminants, or 90 percent, in your drinking water.
(They also remove up to 99% of lead contamination in Detroit water.)
Brita and PUR pitchers only manage 20% or 2 out of 10.
Save money on new and replacement filters when you use the links at waterbadge.com/filters.
Detroit Whole House Water Filtration Systems
A whole house filtration system will also filter out 9 of the 10 contaminants, making it another effective choice.
A few things to note:
- Whole house systems are much more effective than water pitchers like Brita and PUR.
- However, the initial cost is higher and they require installation.
For a list of the contaminants that can be filtered out by a whole house system, go to Detroit’s Water Quality page.
To filter out the highest number of contaminants, use our recommendations on the WaterBadge Filters page:
Conclusion: Is Detroit Water Contaminated?
Yes. But it is free of pesticides and most heavy metals.
The most common contaminants are from cleaning the water for human use.
Should you filter it?
Absolutely!
This small extra step can save you and your loved ones from health problems later.
You deserve to feel safe when you drink your own tap water.
At WaterBadge, our goal is to make that a reality.
To support this mission, we’ve partnered with companies that are dedicated to water filtration and safety.
When you purchase filters and systems through them, you’re also supporting WaterBadge’s mission of cleaner water for everyone.
Thanks for doing your part.
Want to learn more about water quality around the U.S.?
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