Oxnard, California
Water Quality in Oxnard, California
Watershed: McGrath Lake – Frontal Pacific Ocean
What is the water quality like in Oxnard, CA?
Let’s dive deeper into what’s in Oxnard water.
What’s in Oxnard water?
Here are the top 7 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
- Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
- Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
- Uranium – Potential effect: Cancer
These are seven of the 25 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
13 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 Oxnard’s water come from?
Oxnard’s water comes from the McGrath Lake – Frontal Pacific Ocean watershed.
11 of the 17 EPA assessed water sources in the McGrath Lake – Frontal Pacific Ocean watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:
- Channel Islands Harbor
- Channel Islands Harbor Beach
- Hobie Beach
- Hueneme Beach Park
- Hueneme Drain
- J Street Drain
- Ormond Beach – one segment
- Ormond Beach Wetlands
- Oxnard Drain
- Port Hueneme Harbor
- Port Hueneme Pier
Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. In Good condtion:
- Hollywood Beach
- Oxnard Beach (one segment)
- Oxnard Beach Park
- Perkins Drain
- Pleasant Valley Road Drain
- Silverstrand Beach
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 Oxnard’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 21 of the 25 contaminants in your drinking water. (Berkey Light and Travel Berkey are the only types available in California.)
- Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Oxnard water.
- Brita can filter 11 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 22 of the 25 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.”
- Arsenic – health effects in water
- Bromodichloromethane – health risks in drinking water
- Bromoform
- Chloroform – side effects
- Dibromoacetic acid
- Dibromochloromethane
- Dichloroacetic acid
- Fluoride
- Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
- Hexavalent chromium – health effects
- Molybdenum
- Monobromoacetic acid
- Nitrate
- Nitrite
- Selenium – toxicity
- Strontium
- Strontium-90
- Toluene
- Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
- Trichloroacetic acid
- Uranium
*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.oxnard.org/ to find contact information for your local officials.