Woodland, California

What is the Water Quality in Woodland, California?

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

Most of their 17 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.

• Haloacetic acids (HAA5) are at extremely high levels: 54x health guidelines.
• Haloacetic acids (HAA9) are at extremely high levels: 150x health guidelines.
  • HAA5 and HAA9 are byproducts of chlorine treatment, a common method of disinfecting water supplies. They can both be removed using activated carbon filters. See below for recommendations.

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

What’s in Woodland water?

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

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

These are five of the 16 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

6 of the total contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.

Does Woodland have Lead contamination?

No, Woodland does not currently have lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2017 through 2019 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 filtered out.

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

Where does Woodland’s water come from?

Woodland’s water comes from the Goodnow Slough – Cache Creek watershed.

All 3 assessed water sources in the Goodnow Slough – Cache Creek watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

• Cache Creek (Lower)
• Gordon Slough
• Winters Canal (Yolo County)

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 three uses:

1. Aquatic Life
2. Fish and Shellfish Consumption
3. Recreation

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

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

What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Woodland 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 69% of 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 any Lead in Woodland water.
  • Brita can filter 3 of 17 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 13 of the 17 contaminants, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your house.
  • These are more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but are more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • 1,4-Dioxane – irritant of the eyes and respiratory tract. “Exposure may cause damage to the central nervous system, liver and kidneys.” (source)
    • Barium
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids (HAA5)
    • Haloacetic acids (HAA9)
    • Hexavalent chromium
    • Molybdenum
    • Nitrate
    • Nitrite
    • Selenium
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*

*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: http://www.cityofwoodland.org/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other California Cities

California Water Quality Page