Auburn, Washington

Water Quality in Auburn, Washington

Watershed: Mill Creek – Green River

What is the water quality like in Auburn, WA?

Let’s dive deeper into what’s in Auburn water.

What’s in Auburn water?

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

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

These are five of the 19 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

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

See the What Can You Do? section below for all of the contaminants you can filter out and how to do it.

Where does Auburn’s water come from?

Auburn’s water comes from the Mill Creek – Green River watershed.

The water sources in the Mill Creek – Green River watershed are in Unknown condition (based on availability of data from the Environmental Protection Agency).

Ideally, a water source would be Known and 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 Auburn’s water.

Conclusion – What Can You Do?

Information about water quality can be surprising.

But there’s no reason to lose hope. There are things you can do in your household as well as things you can do at a community level.

In Your Household:

• Use Berkey filters with activated carbon to filter out 14 of the 19 contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Auburn water.
  • Brita can filter 11 (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 16 of the 19 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:
    • Arsenic – health risks
    • Bromochloroacetic acid
    • Bromodichloromethane – health risks in drinking water
    • Bromoform
    • Chloroform – side effects
    • Dibromoacetic acid
    • Dibromochloromethane
    • Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
    • Hexavalent chromium – health effects
    • Nitrate
    • Nitrite
    • Strontium
    • Testosterone
    • Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
    • Trichloroacetic acid

*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.auburnwa.gov/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Washington Cities

Washington Water Quality Page