Turlock, California
What is the Water Quality in Turlock, California?
Compared to other US cities, Turlock water quality ranks in the lower range for contamination excluding Lead.
Most of their 16 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.
- Arsenic is at extremely high levels: 2029x health guidelines.
- Hexavalent chromium is at extremely high levels: 272x health guidelines.
- Uranium is at high levels: 10x health guidelines.
Let’s look closer at what’s in Turlock water.
What’s in Turlock water?
Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in Turlock water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Arsenic – Potential effect: Cancer
- Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Nitrate – Potential effect: Cancer
- Nitrate and nitrite – Potential effect: Cancer
- Uranium – Potential effect: Cancer
These are five of the 16 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
8 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Does Turlock water have Lead contamination?
No, Turlock does not have lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2016 through 2018 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 removed.
See the What Can You Do? section below to learn how to filter out contaminants.
Where does Turlock’s water come from?
Turlock’s water comes from the Pear Slough – San Joaquin River watershed.
5 of the 7 EPA assessed water sources in the Pear Slough – San Joaquin River watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:
- Harding Drain
- Highline Canal
- Lateral Drain 5 (Stanislaus County)
- Prairie Flower Drain
- San Joaquin River
Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. August Drain and Marshall Road Drain are both in Good condition.
Whether a water source is in Impaired or Good condition refers to the quality of these uses:
- Drinking Water
- Aquatic Life
- Fish and Shellfish Consumption
- Recreation
Learn more from How’s My Waterway
See below for what you can do to improve Turlock’s water.
What Can You Do?
Information about water quality in Turlock 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 some 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 83% 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 Lead in Turlock water.
- Brita can filter 3 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 11 of the 13 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:
- Aluminum
- Arsenic – health risks
- Barium – health risks
- Dibromochloropane (DBCP) – soil fumigant causing male sterility at high exposure levels.
- Fluoride
- Hexavalent chromium
- Nitrate
- Nitrite
- Strontium
- Tetrachloroethylene
*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://ci.turlock.ca.us/government/index.asp to find contact information for your local officials.