Port Orange, Florida
What is the Water Quality in Port Orange, Florida?
[Updated: June 9, 2023]
Compared to other US cities, Port Orange water quality ranks in the lower-middle range for contamination excluding Lead.
Most of their 12 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) are at extremely high levels: 207x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA9) are at extremely high levels: 363x health guidelines.
- These are both byproducts of the chlorine treatment process most water supplies go through.
Let’s look closer at what’s in Port Orange water.
What are the Main Contaminants in Port Orange water?
Here are the top 4 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
- Haloacetic acids (HAA9) – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
These are four of the 12 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
These 4 contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Does Port Orange have Lead contamination?
Yes, Port Orange has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected in 2017 showed concentrations up to 2.3 parts per billion (ppb).
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 Port Orange’s water come from?
Port Orange’s water comes from the Rose Bay – Spruce Creek Frontal watershed.
All 4 assessed water sources in the Rose Bay – Spruce Creek Frontal watershed are in Good condition. These include:
- Beach Street
- North Jetty
- Oceanview Way
- Ponce Inlet Park
Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition.
Whether a water source is in Impaired or Good condition refers to the quality of three uses:
- Aquatic Life
- Fish and Shellfish Consumption
- Recreation
Learn more from How’s My Waterway
See below for what you can do to improve Port Orange’s water.
What Can You Do?
Information about water quality in Port Orange can be surprising.
But there are things you can do in your home to clean up your water.
- Test Your Water using Varify Home Test Kits or similar.
- To Remove Lead and Other Contaminants In Your Home:
- Use Activated Carbon filters to remove most contaminants in your drinking water.
- To filter out even more contaminants in your home, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your whole house.
- These are more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but are much more effective.
- They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
- Aluminum
- Chromium (total)
- Fluoride
- Haloacetic acids – HAA5 and HAA9
- Hexavalent chromium
- Nitrate
- Strontium
- Total trihalomethanes
- Our recommendation: APEC Reverse Osmosis Systems
*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.port-orange.org/ to find contact information for your local officials.