Kannapolis, North Carolina
What is the Water Quality in Kannapolis, North Carolina?
Compared to other US cities, Kannapolis water quality ranks in the low-mid range for contamination excluding Lead.
Most of their 22 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.
- Chloroform is at particularly high levels: 102x health guidelines.
Kannapolis also has PFOA and PFOS, dangerous “forever chemicals” the EPA is currently studying.
Let’s look closer at what’s in Kannapolis water.
What’s in Kannapolis 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
- Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
- PFOA – Potential effect: Cancer
These are five of the 22 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
11 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Does Kannapolis have Lead contamination?
No, Kannapolis does not currently have lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2017 through 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 for all of the contaminants you can filter out and how to do it.
Where does Kannapolis’s water come from?
Kannapolis’s water comes from the Irish Buffalo Creek watershed.
The Irish Buffalo Creek watershed overall is in Good condition.
Ideally, all water sources would be rated in Good condition. See below for what you can do to improve Kannapolis’s water and the water in your home.
Learn more from How’s My Waterway here
What Can You Do?
Information about water quality in Kannapolis can be surprising.
Especially with chemical compounds we don’t know much about yet like PFOA and PFOS.
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 93.8% of contaminants in your drinking water. This includes PFOA and PFOS.
- Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Kannapolis water.
- Brita can filter 14 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 19 of the 22 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:
- 1,4-Dioxane
- Atrazine
- Chlorate
- Chromium (hexavalent)
- PFHXS
- PFOA
- PFOS
- 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.kannapolisnc.gov/ to find contact information for your local officials.