Lenexa, Kansas

What is the Water Quality in Lenexa, Kansas?

[Updated: June 13, 2023]

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

Most of their 25 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.

• Arsenic is at extremely high levels: 225x health guidelines.
• Chloroform is at very high levels: 35x health guidelines.
• Haloacetic acids (HAA5) are at extremely high levels: 162x health guidelines.
• Haloacetic acids (HAA9) are at extremely high levels: 221x health guidelines.
  • These are both byproducts of the chlorine treatment process most water supplies go through.

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

What’s in Lenexa 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. Atrazine – Potential effect: Harm to the developing fetus
3. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 25 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

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

Does Lenexa have Lead contamination?

Yes, Lenexa has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2015 through 2017 showed concentrations up to 3.8 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 Lenexa’s water come from?

Lenexa’s water comes from the Headwaters Indian Creek watershed.

2 of the 3 water sources in the Headwaters Indian Creek watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These are:

• Indian Creek
• South Lake Park

Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. Only Stohl Park Lake is in good condition.

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

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

Conclusion – What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Lenexa can be surprising.

But there are things you can do in your home to clean up your water.

1. Test Your Water using Varify Home Test Kits or similar.
2. To Remove Lead and Other Contaminants In Your Home:

• Use Activated Carbon filters to remove most contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Faucet-mount filters work better than pitchers.
  • PUR and Brita are low-cost and effective.

• To filter out even more contaminants in your whole house, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your home.
  • These are typically more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but can be more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • Arsenic
    • Atrazine
    • Barium
    • Chlorite – can cause a negative change in blood chemistry.
    • Chromium (hexavalent)
    • Haloacetic acids (HAA5 and HAA9) – common byproducts of chlorine water treatment.
    • Nitrate
    • Selenium
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes
    • Xylenes
  • Our recommendation: APEC Reverse Osmosis Systems

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.lenexa.com/government to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Kansas Cities

Kansas Water Quality Page