Lodi, California
What is the Water Quality in Lodi, California?
Compared to other US cities, Lodi water quality ranks in the high range for contamination excluding Lead.
Most of their 40 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.
- Arsenic is at extremely high levels: 1,150x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) are at extremely high levels: 61x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA9) are at extremely high levels: 143x health guidelines.
- These are both byproducts of the chlorine treatment process most water supplies go through.
Let’s look closer at what’s in Lodi water.
What’s in Lodi water?
Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Arsenic – Potential effect: Cancer. Extremely high amounts present.
- Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
- Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5 and HAA9) – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
These are five of the 40 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
14 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Does Lodi have Lead contamination?
Yes, Lodi has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2016 through 2018 showed concentrations up to 1.7 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 removed.
See the What Can You Do? section below to learn how to filter out contaminants.
Where does Lodi’s water come from?
Lodi’s water comes from the Town of Lodi.
One of the two EPA assessed water sources in the Town of Lodi is in Unknown condition.This is Terminous Tract Drain at Highway 12 in San Joaquin County.
Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. Terminous Tract Drain at Glasscock Road is in Good condition.
Whether a water source is in Impaired or Good condition refers to the quality of these uses:
- Drinking Water
- Aquatic Life
- Fish and Shellfish Consumption
- Recreation
Learn more from How’s My Waterway
See below for what you can do to improve Lodi’s water.
What Can You Do?
Information about water quality in Lodi 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 89% 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 Lodi water.
- Brita can filter 25 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 35 of the 40 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 – toxic exposure information
- Bromodichloromethane
- Chloroform
- Chloromethane
- Dibromochloromethane
- Dibromochloropropane (DBCP) – soil fumigant causing male sterility at high exposure levels.
- Fluoride
- Haloacetic acids
- Hexavalent chromium
- Mercury – toxicity and safety
- Nitrate
- Nitrite
- Selenium
- Strontium
- Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
- Uranium
*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: http://www.lodi.gov/ to find contact information for your local officials.