Aberdeen, South Dakota

What is the Water Quality in Aberdeen, South Dakota?

[Updated: June 12, 2023]

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

Most of the 11 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.

• Haloacetic acids (HAA9) are at extremely high levels: 368x health guidelines.

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

What’s in Aberdeen water?

Here are the top 4 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:

1. Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
2. Haloacetic acids (HAA9) – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are four of the 11 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

These 4 contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.

Does Aberdeen have Lead contamination?

Yes, Aberdeen has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected in 2017 showed concentrations up to 5.0 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 filtered out.

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

Where does Aberdeen’s water come from?

Aberdeen’s water comes from the Alkali Lake-Moccasin Creek watershed.

All 3 EPA assessed water sources in the Alkali Lake-Moccasin Creek watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

• Moccasin Creek – two sections
• Wylie Lake

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

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 Aberdeen’s water.

Conclusion – What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Aberdeen 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 are much more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • Chromium (total)
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids (HAA5 and HAA9) – chlorination byproducts*
    • Hexavalent chromium – health effects
    • Molybdenum
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
  • 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://aberdeen.sd.us/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other South Dakota Cities

South Dakota Water Quality Page