Niagara Falls, New York
What is the Water Quality in Niagara Falls, New York?
Compared to other US cities, Niagara Falls water quality ranks in the middle range for contamination.
Most of their 25 contaminants are related to water treatment and have cancer-causing attributes.
Others, like Radium and Nitrates, can be naturally occurring or side effects of industrial activity: runoff, pesticides, etc.
Let’s look closer at what’s in Niagara Falls water.
What’s in Niagara Falls water?
Here are the top 6 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Arsenic – Potential effect: Cancer
- Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
- Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
- Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
- Trichloroacetic acid – Potential effect: Cancer
These are six of the 25 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
12 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Does Niagara Falls have Lead contamination?
Yes, it does. 90 percent of lead samples collected in Niagara Falls between 2015 and 2017 had concentrations up to 10.0 parts per billion.
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 Niagara Fall’s water come from?
Niagara Falls (city) water comes from water sources in the Niagara Falls – Niagara River watershed.
1 out of 7 waterbodies in the Niagara Falls – Niagara River watershed is in Good condition. This is the Grand Island waterbody.
The remaining 6 waterbodies are either Impaired (6) or in Unknown Condition (1).
Impaired waterbodies:
- Hyde Park Lake
- Lower Niagara River – Main Stem
- Upper Niagara River – Main Stem
- Gill Creek and tributaries
- Chippewa (West) Channel
Learn more from How’s My Waterway here
What Can You Do?
Information about water quality in Niagara Falls 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 87% in your drinking water.
- Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of lead in Niagara Falls Water.
- Brita can filter 12 (including Lead depending on the filter).
- Note: We may receive a commission if you purchase a filter via a link on this page.
- To filter out all 25 of the contaminants (100%), consider a whole house water filtration system for your home.
- These are typically more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but are more effective.
- They have the benefit of filtering out the heavy hitters like:
- Chromium (hexavalent)
- Nitrate
- Radium
- Strontium
- Uranium
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://niagarafallsusa.org/government/ to find contact information for your local officials.