Highland, California

What is the Water Quality in Highland, California?

Compared to other US cities, Highland water quality ranks in the middle range for contamination excluding Lead.

Most of their 27 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.

• Arsenic is at extremely high levels: 139x health guidelines.
• Uranium is at 12x health guidelines.

Let’s look closer at what’s in Highland water.

What’s in Highland 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. Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Uranium – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 27 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

15 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.

Does Highland have Lead contamination?

No, Highland does not currently have lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected in 2019 showed concentrations of 0.0 parts per billion.

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 filtered out.

See the What Can You Do? section below to learn how to filter out contaminants.

Where does Highland’s water come from?

Highland’s water comes from the Warm Creek – Santa Ana River watershed.

2 of the 4 water sources in the Warm Creek – Santa Ana River watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These are:

• Santa Ana River, Reach 4
• Santa Ana River, Reach 5

Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. City Creek and Lytle Creek are in good condition

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

See below for what you can do to improve Highland’s water.

What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Highland 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 79% of 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 Highland water.
  • Brita can filter 13 of 27 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 24 of the 27 contaminants in your whole house, consider a whole house water filtration system.
  • These are typically more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but are more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • Aluminum
    • Arsenic
    • Bromodichloromethane
    • Bromoform
    • Chloroform
    • Chromium (hexavalent)
    • Fluoride
    • Germanium
    • Haloacetic acids
    • Nitrate
    • Nitrite
    • Strontium
    • Uranium

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.cityofhighland.org/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other California Cities

California Water Quality Page