Is Albuquerque Water Safe?
Albuquerque water quality ranks in the mid to high range for contaminants. With a total of 33 contaminants in your drinking water, 16 of them exceed health guidelines.
- For reference, Miramar, Florida has 75 contaminants. (The most of any U.S. city over 50,000.)
Drinking unfiltered water from Albuquerque water sources could be hazardous to your health.
Let’s look closer at Albuquerque water quality.
Water Quality in Albuquerque
Albuquerque has a total of 33 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
48.5% of contaminants are rated as exceeding health guidelines.
They include things like Arsenic, Chloroform, Uranium, and Xylenes.
Most of the contaminants pose a risk of Cancer if allowed to stay in your drinking water.
Lead in Albuquerque Water
Albuquerque drinking water has very low levels of lead in it.
90 percent of samples taken from Albuquerque water sources from 2016 – 2018 had a lead concentration of 1.0 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)
- El Paso, Texas has lead concentrations up to 84 parts per billion.
- Portland, Oregon has lead concentrations up to 52.4 parts per billion.
- The legal limit for lead is 15 ppb. The city is not legally required to mitigate unless levels pass 15 ppb.
There is no safe level of lead for humans.
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
Learn more about Lead Poisoning Symptoms here.
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 81.5 percent of contaminants in your drinking water.
(They also remove up to 99% of lead contamination in Albuquerque water.)
Basic pitchers like Brita can filter 51.9%. Brita Longlast filters and faucet filters can also remove Lead.
Save money on new and replacement filters when you use the links at waterbadge.com/filters.
Albuquerque Whole House Water Filtration Systems
A whole house filtration system can filter out 92.6 percent, 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 Albuquerque’s Water Quality page.
To filter out the highest number of contaminants, use our recommendations on the WaterBadge Filters page:
Conclusion: Is Albuquerque Water Safe?
No. Based on contamination levels, we wouldn’t recommend drinking unfiltered Albuquerque water.
Filtering your water 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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