Montgomery, Alabama
Water Quality in Montgomery, Alabama
Watershed: Jackson Lake
What is the water quality like in Montgomery, AL?
Let’s dive deeper into what’s in Montgomery water.
What’s in Montgomery water?
Here are the top 7 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
- Chlorite – Potential effect: Change in blood chemistry
- Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
- Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
- Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Radium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
These are seven of the 21 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
These 7 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 Montgomery’s water come from?
Montgomery’s water comes from the Jackson Lake watershed.
The single EPA assessed water source in the Jackson Lake watershed is in Good condition. This is the Alabama River itself from the Birmingham Highway in the West to Gossom Switch Rd in the East.
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 Montgomery’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 16 of the 21 contaminants in your drinking water.
- Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Montgomery water.
- Brita can filter 8 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 18 of the 21 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:
- 1,1-Dichloroethylene – Precursor to Saran wrap. Symptoms from exposure: “sedation, inebriation, convulsions, spasms, and unconsciousness at high concentrations.”
- Aluminum
- Barium – health risks in water
- Bromochloromethane
- Bromodichloromethane – health risks in drinking water
- Chlorite – changes in blood chemistry
- Chloroform – side effects
- Dibromochloromethane
- Fluoride
- Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
- Hexavalent chromium – health effects
- Nitrate
- Nitrite
- Radium
- Strontium
- Thallium
- 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://www.montgomeryal.gov/ to find contact information for your local officials.