Joplin, Missouri

Joplin, Missouri Joplin, Missouri

What is the Water Quality in Joplin, Missouri?

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

Most of their 26 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.

  • Chloroform is at particularly high levels: 42x health guidelines.

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

What’s in Joplin water?

Here are the top 6 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:

  1. Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
  2. Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
  3. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
  4. Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
  5. Nitrate – Potential effect: Cancer
  6. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are six of the 26 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

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

Does Joplin have Lead contamination?

Yes, Joplin has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2015 through 2017 showed concentrations up to 4.0 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 for all of the contaminants you can filter out and how to do it.

Where does Joplin’s water come from?

Joplin’s water comes from the Turkey Creek watershed.

All three waterbodies in the Turkey Creek watershed are in Impaired condition.

Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. See below for what you can do to improve Joplin’s water.

Learn more from How’s My Waterway here

What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Joplin 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 85% of contaminants in Joplin drinking water.
    • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Joplin 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 23 of the 26 contaminants in your whole house, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system.
    • These are typically more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but may require fewer filter changes over time.
    • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
      • 2,4-D
      • Aluminum
      • Atrazine
      • Barium
      • Chlorate
      • Chloroform
      • Chromium (hexavalent)
      • Nitrate
      • Nitrite
      • Radium
      • Simazine
      • Strontium

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

Water Quality in Other Missouri Cities

Missouri Water Quality Page

Sign In

Register

Reset Password

Please enter your username or email address, you will receive a link to create a new password via email.