Eagan, Minnesota
What is the Water Quality in Eagan, Minnesota?
Compared to other US cities, Eagan water quality ranks in the lower-middle range for contamination excluding Lead.
Most of their 17 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.
- Radium is at very high levels: 46x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) are at very high levels: 39x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA9) are at very high levels: 98x health guidelines.
- These are both byproducts of the chlorine treatment process most water supplies go through.
Let’s look closer at what’s in Eagan water.
What’s in Eagan water?
Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
- Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
- Radium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
These are five of the 17 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
10 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Does Eagan have Lead contamination?
Yes, Eagan has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2014 through 2016 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 removed.
See the What Can You Do? section below to learn how to filter out contaminants.
Where does Eagan’s water come from?
Eagan’s water comes from the Minnesota River watershed.
Both water sources in the Minnesota River watershed are in Impaired condition. These are:
- Minnesota River
- Snelling
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 three uses:
- Aquatic Life
- Fish and Shellfish Consumption
- Recreation
Learn more from How’s My Waterway
See below for what you can do to improve Eagan’s water.
What Can You Do?
Information about water quality in Eagan 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 95% of contaminants in your drinking water.
- This includes Chloroform, Haloacetic acids, and Radium.
- Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Eagan water.
- Brita can filter 10 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 16 of the 17 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:
- Bromodichloromethane
- Bromoform
- Chloroform
- Dibromoacetic acid
- Dibromochloromethane
- Fluoride
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5 and HAA9) – byproducts of chlorination*
- Hexavalent chromium
- Molybdenum
- Strontium
- Total trihalomethanes – byproducts 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.cityofeagan.com/ to find contact information for your local officials.