Millcreek, Utah
What is the Water Quality in Millcreek, Utah?
[Updated: June 13, 2023]
Compared to other US cities, Millcreek water quality ranks in the high range for contamination excluding Lead.
Most of their 36 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.
- Arsenic is at extremely high levels: 109x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) are at extremely high levels: 324x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA9) are at extremely high levels: 582x health guidelines.
- These are both byproducts of the chlorine treatment process most water supplies go through.
Let’s look closer at what’s in Millcreek water.
What’s in Millcreek water?
Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Arsenic – Potential effect: Cancer
- Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5 and HAA9) – Potential effect: Cancer
- Radium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
These are five of the 36 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
14 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Does Millcreek have Lead contamination?
Yes, Millcreek has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2016 through 2018 showed concentrations up to 2.8 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 removed.
See the What Can You Do? section below to learn how to filter out contaminants.
Where does Millcreek’s water come from?
Millcreek’s water comes from the Outlet Big Cottonwood Creek watershed.
Both assessed water sources in the Outlet Big Cottonwood Creek watershed are in Impaired condition. These are:
- Big Cottonwood Creek – 1
- Big Cottonwood Creek – 2
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:
- Aquatic Life
- Fish and Shellfish Consumption
- Recreation
See a map of Big Cottonwood Creek and Learn more from How’s My Waterway
See below for what you can do to improve Millcreek’s water.
Conclusion – What Can You Do?
Information about water quality in Millcreek can be surprising.
But there are things you can do in your home to clean up your water.
- Test Your Water using Varify Home Test Kits or similar.
- To Remove Lead and Other Contaminants In Your Home:
- Use Activated Carbon filters to remove most contaminants in your drinking water.
- 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 can be more effective.
- They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
- Arsenic
- Bromide
- Bromodichloromethane
- Fluoride
- Haloacetic acids – HAA5 and HAA9
- Hexavalent chromium
- Nitrate
- Nitrite
- Radium
- Selenium
- Silver
- Strontium
- Thallium – highly toxic. Sources include emissions from “cement factories, coal-burning power plants, and metal sewers [and] ore processing operations.” (source)
- 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://millcreek.us/ to find contact information for your local officials.