Louisville, Kentucky

Water Quality in Louisville, Kentucky

Watershed: Fall Run – Ohio River

What is the water quality like in Louisville, KY?

Let’s dive deeper into what’s in Louisville water.

What’s in Louisville water?

Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:

1. Chlorite – Potential effect: Change in blood chemistry
2. Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Radium – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 16 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

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

See the What Can You Do? section below for all of the contaminants you can filter out and how to do it.

Where does Louisville’s water come from?

Louisville’s water comes from the Fall Run – Ohio River watershed.

All 33 EPA assessed water sources in the Fall Run – Ohio River watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

• Chickasaw Park Pond
• Eversole Creek
• Fall Run
• Falling Run
• Four Mile Creek
• Mill Creek
• Ohio River – 15 segments

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

Whether a water source is in Impaired or Good condition refers to the quality of these uses:

1. Drinking Water
2. Aquatic Life
3. Fish and Shellfish Consumption
4. Recreation

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

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

Conclusion – What Can You Do?

Information about water quality can be surprising.

But there’s no reason to lose hope. There are things you can do in your household as well as things you can do at a community level.

In Your Household:

• Use Berkey filters with activated carbon to filter out 10 of the 16 contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Louisville water.
  • Brita can filter 5 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 14 of the 16 contaminants, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your house.
  • These are more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but can be more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • 1,4-Dioxane – “Exposure may cause damage to the central nervous system, liver and kidneys.”
    • Aluminum
    • Ethinyl estradiol
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
    • Hexavalent chromium – health effects
    • Molybdenum
    • Nitrate
    • PFOA – used in carpeting, upholstery, apparel, floor wax, textiles, firefighting foam, and sealants. Exposure associated with two kinds of cancer and four other diseases. [Source]
    • Radium
    • Silver
    • 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://louisvilleky.gov/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Kentucky Cities

Kentucky Water Quality Page