Apple Valley, California

What is the Water Quality in Apple Valley, California?

[Updated: June 9, 2023]

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

Most of their 25 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.

• Arsenic is at extremely high levels: 235x health guidelines.
• Hexavalent chromium is at extremely high levels: 133x health guidelines.
• Uranium is 2.2x health guidelines.

Let’s look closer at what’s in Apple Valley water.

What’s in Apple Valley water?

Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in Apple Valley water and what health issues they can potentially cause:

1. Arsenic – Potential effect: Cancer
2. Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 25 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

12 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.

Does Apple Valley water have Lead contamination?

No, Apple Valley does not currently have lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2014 through 2016 showed concentrations up to 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 Apple Valley’s water come from?

Apple Valley’s water comes from the Apple Pond – Apple Valley Dry Lake watershed.

There are no EPA assesed water sources in the Apple Pond – Apple Valley Dry Lake watershed.

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 these uses:

1. Drinking Water
2. Aquatic Life
3. Fish and Shellfish Consumption
4. Recreation

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

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

What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Apple Valley 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:

• 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 more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but can be more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • 1,4-Dioxane
    • Arsenic
    • Barium – health risks
    • Bromodichloromethane – health risks
    • Chloroform
    • Cobalt
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
    • Hexavalent chromium
    • Nitrate
    • Nitrite
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
    • Uranium
  • 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://www.applevalley.org/government to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other California Cities

California Water Quality Page