Cerritos, California

What is the Water Quality in Cerritos, California?

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

Most of their 27 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.

• Arsenic is at extremely high levels: 1546x health guidelines.
• Uranium is at high levels: 2.2x health guidelines.

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

What’s in Cerritos 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. Dibromoacetic Acid – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Dibromochloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
6. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 27 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

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

Does Cerritos have Lead contamination?

No, Cerritos does not currently have lead in its water. 90 percent of lead samples collected in Cerritos from 2014 to 2016 had concentrations of 0.0 parts per billion.

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 Cerritos’s water come from?

Cerritos water comes from the Coyote Creek – San Gabriel River watershed.

All 7 water sources in the Coyote Creek – San Gabriel River watershed are in Impaired condition.

Impaired Waterbodies:

• Artesia-Norwalk Drain
• Coyote Creek
• El Dorado Lakes
• San Gabriel River Estuary
• San Gabriel River Reaches 1, 2, and 3

Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. See below for what you can do to improve Cerritos’s water.

Learn more from How’s My Waterway here

What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Cerritos, California 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 a Berkey Light or Travel Berkey filter with activated carbon to filter out at least 66.7% of contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of any future Lead in Cerritos water.
  • Brita can filter 15 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 86.4%, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your home.
  • These are typically more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but may require fewer filter changes over time.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • Arsenic
    • Chromium (hexavalent)
    • Molybdenum
    • Nitrate
    • Strontium
    • 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: http://www.cerritos.us/government.php to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other California Cities

California Water Quality Page