Flagstaff, Arizona
What is the Water Quality in Flagstaff, Arizona?
[Updated: June 10, 2023]
Compared to other US cities, Flagstaff water quality ranks in the middle range for contamination excluding Lead.
Most of their 18 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.
- Arsenic is at very high levels: 745x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) are at extremely high levels: 160x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA9) are at extremely high levels: 320x health guidelines.
- These are both byproducts of the chlorine treatment process most water supplies go through.
Let’s look closer at what’s in Flagstaff water.
What’s in Flagstaff water?
Here are the top 6 chemical compounds in Flagstaff water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Arsenic – Potential effect: Cancer
- Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
- Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Radium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
- Uranium – Potential effect: Cancer
These are six of the 18 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
8 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Does Flagstaff water have Lead contamination?
Yes, Flagstaff has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2015 through 2017 showed concentrations up to 2.1 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 Flagstaff’s water come from?
Flagstaff’s water comes from the Upper Rio de Flag watershed.
There are no EPA assessed water sources in the Upper Rio de Flag watershed.
Ideally, a water source would be Assessed, Known, and rated 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 Flagstaff’s water.
What Can You Do?
Information about water quality in Flagstaff 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, 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 – irritant of the eyes and respiratory tract
- Arsenic – health risks
- Barium – health risks
- Chlorite
- Chromium (total)
- Fluoride
- Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
- Hexavalent chromium
- Nitrate
- Nitrite
- Radium
- Strontium
- Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
- Uranium
- 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: http://www.flagstaff.az.gov/Directory.aspx to find contact information for your local officials.