San Ramon, California
What is the Water Quality in San Ramon, California?
[Data gathered from Dublin-San Ramon Services District.]
Compared to other US cities, San Ramon water quality ranks in the high range for contamination excluding Lead.
Most of their 33 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.
- Chloroform is at high levels: 12x health guidelines.
- PFBS is at very high levels: 4.5x health guidelines.
- PFHXS is at very high levels: 23x health guidelines.
- PFOA is at extremely high levels: 438x health guidelines.
- PFOS is at extremely high levels: 27x health guidelines.
- The PFAS chemicals above are all considered “forever chemicals” by the EPA and are being studied extensively.
Let’s look closer at what’s in San Ramon water.
What’s in San Ramon water?
Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in San Ramon water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
- Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
- Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
- Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
These are five of the 33 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
17 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Does San Ramon water have Lead contamination?
Yes, San Ramon has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2014 through 2016 showed concentrations up to 3.0 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 San Ramon’s water come from?
San Ramon’s water comes from the South San Ramon Creek watershed.
There are no EPA assessed water sources in the South San Ramon Creek watershed.
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 San Ramon’s water.
What Can You Do?
Information about water quality in San Ramon 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 the majority of 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 San Ramon water.
- Brita can filter 17 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 30 of the 33 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:
- Barium – health risks in water
- Bromodichloromethane – health risks in drinking water
- Bromide
- Bromoform
- Chloroform – side effects
- Chromium (total)
- Dibromochloromethane
- Fluoride
- Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
- Hexavalent chromium – health effects
- Nitrate
- Selenium – toxic
- Strontium – wiki
- Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
- 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.sanramon.ca.gov/ to find contact information for your local officials.