Duluth, Minnesota

Duluth, Minnesota Duluth, Minnesota

Water Quality in Duluth, Minnesota

Watershed: Saint Louis River

What is the water quality like in Duluth, MN?

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

What’s in Duluth water?

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

  1. Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
  2. Chloroform – 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 14 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

8 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 Duluth’s water come from?

Duluth’s water comes from the Saint Louis River watershed.

All 40 EPA assessed water sources in the Saint Louis River watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

  • Buckingham Creek – Multiple sections
  • Golf Course Pond
  • Hog Island Inlet
  • Lake Superior
  • Miller Creek
  • Newton Creek
  • St. Louis River – Multiple sections
  • Superior
  • Twin
  • Over 20 Unnamed creeks, tributaries, and other waterbodies.

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 Duluth’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 12 of the 14 contaminants in your drinking water.
    • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Duluth water.
    • Brita can filter 7 (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 12 of the 14 contaminants in your whole house, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your home.

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

Water Quality in Other Minnesota Cities

Minnesota Water Quality Page

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