Rocky Mount, North Carolina
What is the Water Quality in Rocky Mount, North Carolina?
Compared to other US communities, Rocky Mount water quality ranks in the lower-middle range for contamination excluding Lead.
Most of their 18 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.
- Chloroform is at extremely high levels: 112x health guidelines.
Let’s look closer at what’s in Rocky Mount water.
What’s in Rocky Mount 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
- Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
These are five of the 18 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
10 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Does Rocky Mount have Lead contamination?
Yes, Rocky Mount has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected in 2019 showed concentrations up to 390.0 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 filtered out.
See the What Can You Do? section below to learn how to filter out contaminants.
Where does Rocky Mount’s water come from?
Rocky Mount’s water comes from the Buck Swamp – Tar River watershed.
One of the water sources in the Buck Swamp – Tar River watershed is in Impaired condition. This is Stony Creek (Boddies Millpond).
Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. The Tar River itself is in good condition.
Learn more from How’s My Waterway
See below for what you can do to improve Rocky Mount’s water.
What Can You Do?
Information about water quality in Rocky Mount 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 94.1% of contaminants in your drinking water.
- Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Rocky Mount water.
- Brita can filter 11 of the 18 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 15 of the 18 contaminants in your whole house, consider a reverse osmosis water filtration system for your home.
- These are typically more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but can be much more effective.
- They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
- Atrazine – Can effect the reproductive system
- Chloroform – Powerful anesthetic
- Chromium (hexavalent)
- Cobalt
- Fluoride
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5 and HAA9) – byproduct of chlorine treatment
- Strontium
- Total trihalomethanes – chlorination byproduct
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://rockymountnc.gov/ to find contact information for your local officials.