Cranston, Rhode Island
What is the Water Quality in Cranston, Rhode Island?
[Updated: June 12, 2023]
Compared to other US cities, Cranston water quality ranks in the lower range for contamination excluding Lead.
Most of the 12 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.
- Chloroform is at very high levels: 18x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) are at extremely high levels: 76x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA9) are at extremely high levels: 240x health guidelines.
- These are both byproducts of the chlorine treatment process most water supplies go through.
Let’s look closer at what’s in Cranston water.
What’s in Cranston water?
Here are the top 3 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
- Haloacetic acids (HAA9) – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
These are two of the 12 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
These 3 contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Does Cranston water have Lead contamination?
Yes, Cranston has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected in 2018 showed concentrations up to 22.0 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 Cranston’s water come from?
Cranston’s water comes from the Pawtuxet River watershed.
15 of the 16 EPA assessed water sources in the Pawtuxet River watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:
- Fenner Pond – Impaired
- Lakewood Brook – Unknown
- Mashapaug Pond – Impaired
- Meshanticut Brook and tributaries – Impaired
- Meshanticut Pond – Impaired
- Pawtuxet River Main Stem – Impaired
- Roger Williams Park Ponds – Impaired
- Sand Pond – Impaired
- Spectacle Pond – Impaired
- Three Pond Brook – Impaired
- Three Ponds – Impaired
- Tongue Pond – Unknown
Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. Furnace Hill Brook and its tributaries are in Good condition.
Whether a water source is in Impaired or Good condition refers to the quality of these uses:
- Drinking Water
- Aquatic Life
- Fish and Shellfish Consumption
- Recreation
Learn more from How’s My Waterway
See below for what you can do to improve Cranston’s water.
Conclusion – What Can You Do?
Information about water quality can be surprising.
But there are things you can do in your home to clean up your water.
- Test Your Water using Varify Home Test Kits or similar.
- To Remove Lead and Other Contaminants In Your Home:
- Use Activated Carbon filters to remove most contaminants in your drinking water.
- To filter out even more contaminants in your whole house, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your home.
- These are more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but can be more effective.
- They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
- Androstenedione
- Barium – health risks in water
- Fluoride
- Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
- Hexavalent chromium – health effects
- Strontium
- Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
- 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.cranstonri.gov/ to find contact information for your local officials.