Anderson, Indiana

What is the Water Quality in Anderson, Indiana?

[Updated: June 13, 2023]

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

Most of their 24 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.

• Arsenic is at extremely high levels: 181x health guidelines.
• Radium is also at very high levels: 13x health guidelines.

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

What’s in Anderson water?

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

1. Arsenic – Potential effect: Cancer
2. Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Nitrate – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Radium – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 24 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

These 10 contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.

Does Anderson have Lead contamination?

Yes, Anderson has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected in 2019 showed concentrations up to 10.1 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 Anderson’s water come from?

Anderson’s water comes from the Turkey Creek – White River watershed.

All 12 water sources in the Turkey Creek – White River watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

• Bronnenburg Ditch
• Chesterfield Branch
• Killbuck Creek
• Mount Pleasant Run
• Small Branch
• Turkey Creek
• White River – 6 sections

*Fish and shellfish consumption from the above water sources is not recommended.

Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition.

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

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

Conclusion – What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Anderson, Indiana can be surprising.

But there are things you can do in your home to clean up your water.

1. Test Your Water using Varify Home Test Kits or similar.
2. To Remove Lead and Other Contaminants In Your Home:

• Use Activated Carbon filters to remove most contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Faucet-mount filters work better than pitchers.
  • PUR and Brita are low-cost and effective.

• To filter out even more contaminants, consider a reverse osmosis water filtration system for your house.
  • These are typically more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but are much more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • Arsenic
    • Chromium (hexavalent)
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids (HAA5)
    • Molybdenum
    • Nitrate
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes
    • Trichloroethylene
  • Our recommendation: APEC Reverse Osmosis Systems

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://www.cityofanderson.com/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Indiana Cities

Indiana Water Quality Page