El Monte, California

Water Quality in El Monte, California

Watershed: Alhambra Wash – Rio Hondo

What is the water quality like in El Monte, CA?

Let’s dive deeper into what’s in El Monte water.

What’s in El Monte 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. Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Nitrate – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 32 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

9 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 El Monte’s water come from?

El Monte’s water comes from the Alhambra Wash – Rio Hondo watershed.

All 7 EPA assessed water sources in the Alhambra Wash – Rio Hondo watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

• Alhambra Wash
• John Ford Park Lake
• Legg Lake
• Rio Hondo Reaches 1, 2, and 3
• Zone Ditch 1

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 El Monte’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 26 of the 32 contaminants in your drinking water. (Berkey Light and Travel Berkey are the only types available in California.)
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in El Monte water.
  • Brita can filter 13 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 28 of the 32 contaminants, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your house.
  • These are more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but can be more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • 1,4-Dioxane – “Exposure may cause damage to the central nervous system, liver and kidneys.”
    • Aluminum
    • Arsenic – health risks
    • Barium – health risks in water
    • Bromodichloromethane – health risks in drinking water
    • Bromoform
    • Chloroform – side effects
    • Chromium (total)
    • Cobalt
    • Dibromoacetic acid
    • Dibromochloromethane
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
    • Hexavalent chromium – health effects
    • Methyl ethyl ketone
    • Molybdenum
    • Monochloroacetic acid
    • Nitrate
    • Nitrite
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
    • Trichloroethylene
    • Uranium

*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: http://elmonteca.gov/27/Government to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other California Cities

California Water Quality Page