Normal, Illinois

What is the Water Quality in Normal, Illinois?

Compared to other US cities, Normal 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: 2,275x health guidelines.

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

What’s in Normal water?

Here are the top 6 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:

1. Arsenic – Potential effect: Cancer
2. Chlorite – Potential effect: Change in blood chemistry
3. Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
6. Radium – Potential effect: Cancer

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

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

Does Normal have Lead contamination?

Yes, Normal has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2015 through 2017 showed concentrations up to 2.2 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 filtered out.

See the What Can You Do? section below to learn how to filter out contaminants.

Where does Normal’s water come from?

Normal’s water comes from the City of Normal – Sugar Creek watershed.

Both water sources in the City of Normal – Sugar Creek watershed are in Impaired condition. These are:

• Goose Creek
• Sugar Creek

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

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

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

What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Normal, Illinois 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 80% of contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Normal water.
  • Brita can filter 12 of the 25 contaminants and Lead depending on the filter.
    • Regular Brita filters will not remove Arsenic or Radium.
  • Note: We may receive a commission if you decide to purchase filters through links on this page.
• To filter out 22 of the 25 contaminants, consider a whole house water filtration system for your home.
  • These are typically more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but are much more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • Arsenic
    • Barium
    • Chlorite
    • Chloroform
    • Chromium (hexavalent)
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids – HAA5 and HAA9
    • Molybdenum
    • Nitrate
    • Nitrite
    • Radium
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes

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.normal.org/27/Government to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Illinois Cities

Illinois Water Quality Page