Lakewood, Washington

What is the Water Quality in Lakewood, Washington?

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

Most of their 20 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.

• Arsenic is at extremely high levels: 362x health guidelines.

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

What’s in Lakewood 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. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 20 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

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

Does Lakewood have Lead contamination?

Yes, Lakewood has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2015 through 2017 showed concentrations up to 3.0 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 filtered out.

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

Where does Lakewood’s water come from?

Lakewood’s water comes from the Chambers Creek watershed.

There are no assessed water sources in the Chambers Creek watershed.

Ideally, a water source would be Known and rated in Good condition.

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

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

What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Lakewood 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 Household:

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 your drinking water.
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Lakewood water.
  • Brita can filter 10 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 17 of the 20 contaminants in your whole house, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your home.
  • These are more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but can be more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • Arsenic
    • Chloroform
    • Hexavalent chromium
    • Nitrate
    • Radium
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*

*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: https://cityoflakewood.us/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Washington Cities

Washington Water Quality Page