Carson City, Nevada

What is the Water Quality in Carson City, Nevada?

Compared to other US cities, Carson City water quality ranks in the high range for contamination excluding Lead.

Most of their 35 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.

• Arsenic is at extremely high levels: 1,589x health guidelines.
• Radon is at extremely high levels: 1,060x health guidelines.

Let’s look closer at what’s in Carson City water.

What’s in Carson City 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. Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Radium – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Uranium – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 35 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

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

Does Carson City have Lead contamination?

Yes, Carson City has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2015 through 2017 showed concentrations up to 2.0 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 filtered out.

See the What Can You Do? section below to learn how to filter out contaminants.

Where does Carson City’s water come from?

Carson City’s water comes from the Eagle Valley – Carson River watershed.

4 of the 7 water sources in the Eagle Valley – Carson River watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

• Carson River at Dayton Bridge
• Carson River near New Empire

Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. Ash Canyon, Ash Canyon Tributary, and Kings Canyon Creek (North Fork) are all in Good condition.

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

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

What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Carson City 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:

There is one solution that beats Brita, PUR, and expensive whole house systems.

• It costs less per gallon.
• Needs fewer filter changes.
• And it doesn’t make your water taste weird.

• Use Berkey filters with activated carbon to filter out at least 80% of contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Carson City water.
  • Brita can filter 16 of 35 contaminants 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 32 of the 35 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:
    • 1,4-Dioxane
    • Arsenic
    • Barium
    • Chloroform
    • Chromium (hexavalent)
    • Fluoride
    • Germanium
    • Haloacetic acids (HAA5 and HAA9) – byproducts of chlorine treatment
    • Hexachlorocyclopentadiene – found in pesticides, flame retardants, and dyes
    • Methyl ethyl ketone – industrial solvent
    • Nitrate
    • Nitrite
    • Radium
    • Radon
    • Silver
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes
    • Uranium

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.carson.org/government to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Nevada Cities

Nevada Water Quality Page