Roanoke, Virginia

Water Quality in Roanoke, Virginia

Watershed: Glade Creek – Tinker Creek

What is the water quality like in Roanoke, VA?

Let’s dive deeper into what’s in Roanoke water.

What’s in Roanoke water?

Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:

1. Arsenic – Potential effect: Cancer
2. Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Radium – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 29 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

6 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 Roanoke’s water come from?

Roanoke’s water comes from the Glade Creek – Tinker Creek watershed.

All 11 EPA assessed water sources in the Glade Creek – Tinker Creek watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

• Cook Creek
• Coyner Branch
• Glade Creek – five segments
• Laymantown Creek
• Lick Run
• Tinker Creek – two segments

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 these uses:

1. Drinking Water
2. Aquatic Life
3. Fish and Shellfish Consumption
4. Recreation

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

See below for what you can do to improve Roanoke’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 23 of the 29 contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Roanoke water.
  • Brita can filter 9 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 25 of the 29 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.”
    • Aluminum
    • Antimony
    • Arsenic – health risks
    • Barium – health risks in water
    • Benzene – Carcinogen. See: Health effects
    • Beryllium
    • Cadmium – poisoning can lead to weak, brittle bones
    • Carbon tetrachloride
    • Chlorite – change in blood chemistry
    • Chromium (total)
    • Cobalt
    • Cyanide – exposure limits
    • Ethylbenzene
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
    • Hexavalent chromium – health effects
    • Molybdenum
    • Nitrate
    • Nitrite
    • Radium
    • Silver
    • Strontium
    • Thallium – toxic side effects
    • Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
    • Toluene – toxic effects
    • Xylenes – Hearing disorders have been linked to xylene exposure.

*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://www.roanokeva.gov/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Virginia Cities

Virginia Water Quality Page