Rockville, Maryland
What is the Water Quality in Rockville, Maryland?
Compared to other US cities, Rockville water quality ranks in the middle range for contamination excluding Lead.
Most of their 19 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) are at extremely high levels: 254x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA9) are at extremely high levels: 443x health guidelines.
- These are both byproducts of the chlorine treatment process most water supplies go through.
Let’s look closer at what’s in Rockville water.
What’s in Rockville water?
Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
- Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
- Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
These are five of the 19 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
9 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Does Rockville have Lead contamination?
No, Rockville does not currently have lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected in 2018 showed concentrations of 0.0 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 Rockville’s water come from?
Rockville’s water comes from the Cabin John Creek watershed.
All 3 EPA assessed water sources in the Cabin John Creek watershed are in Impaired condition. These include:
- Cabin John Creek
- Two sections of the Potomac River in Montgomery County
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:
- 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 Rockville’s water.
What Can You Do?
Information about water quality in Rockville 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 any Lead in Rockville water.
- Brita can filter 7 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 16 of the 19 contaminants, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your whole 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 – irritant of the eyes and respiratory tract. See: Toxicology
- Atrazine – herbicide
- Barium
- Bromodichloromethane – flame retardant and solvent for fats and waxes.
- Chloroform
- Fluoride
- Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
- Hexavalent chromium
- Nitrate
- Strontium
- Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
*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.rockvillemd.gov/ to find contact information for your local officials.