Is Seattle Water Safe to Drink?
Seattle water quality ranks in the mid range for contaminants.
- For reference, Miramar, Florida has 75 contaminants. (The most of any U.S. city over 50,000.)
- Rochester Hills, Michigan has 5.
- Note: These are both outliers.
With a total of 20 contaminants in your drinking water, 9 of those exceed health guidelines.
Drinking unfiltered water from Seattle water sources could be hazardous to your health.
Let’s look closer at Seattle water quality.
Seattle Water Quality
Seattle has a total of 20 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
9 of these 20 contaminants are rated as exceeding health guidelines.
They include things like Chloroform, Nitrate, and Nitrite.
Most of the 20 contaminants pose a risk of Cancer if allowed to stay in your drinking water.
Lead in Seattle Water
Seattle drinking water has lead in it.
The last lead samples were taken in 2019. 90 percent of samples taken from Seattle water sources had a lead concentration of 5.5 parts per billion (ppb) or less.
Lead concentrations of 3.9 ppb to 15 ppb “put a formula-fed baby at risk of elevated blood lead levels.” (ewg.org)
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
There is no safe level of lead for humans.
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 15 of the 20 contaminants, or 75 percent, in your drinking water.
(They also remove 99% of lead contamination in Seattle water.)
Brita and PUR pitchers only manage 65% or 13 out of 20.
Save money on new and replacement filters when you use the links at waterbadge.com/filters.
Seattle Whole House Water Filtration Systems
A whole house filtration system will filter out 18 of the 20 contaminants, or 90 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 Seattle’s Water Quality page.
To filter out the highest number of contaminants, use our recommendations on the WaterBadge Filters page:
Conclusion: Is Seattle Tap Water Safe to Drink?
Not without a filter.
This small extra step 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.?
Search for your city here:
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