Ogden, Utah
Water Quality in Ogden, Utah
Watershed: Corbett Creek – Weber River
What is the water quality like in Ogden, UT?
Let’s dive deeper into what’s in Ogden water.
What’s in Ogden water?
Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Arsenic – Potential effect: Cancer
- Bromate – Potential effect: Cancer
- Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Nitrate – Potential effect: Cancer
- Radium – Potential effect: Cancer
These are five of the 13 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
These 5 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 Ogden’s water come from?
Ogden’s water comes from the Corbett Creek – Weber River watershed.
7 of the 8 EPA assessed water sources in the Corbett Creek – Weber River watershed are in Unknown condition. These include:
- Burch Creek – two sections
- Corbett Creek
- Spring Creek
- Strong Canyons Creek
- Weber Lower Tributaries
Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. The Weber River 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 Ogden’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 9 of the 13 contaminants in your drinking water.
- Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Ogden water.
- Brita can filter 1 (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 12 of the 13 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:
- Antimony
- Arsenic – health risks
- Barium – health risks in water
- Bromate
- Cyanide – exposure limits
- Fluoride
- Hexavalent chromium – health effects
- Molybdenum
- Nitrate
- Radium
- Selenium – health risks
- Strontium
*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://ogdencity.com/ to find contact information for your local officials.