Santa Ana, California
What is the Water Quality in Santa Ana, California?
Compared to other US cities, Santa Ana water quality ranks in the high range for contamination excluding Lead.
Most of their 35 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.
- Arsenic is at very high levels: 51x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) are at extremely high levels: 50x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA9) are at extremely high levels: 83x health guidelines.
- These are both byproducts of the chlorine treatment process most water supplies go through.
- PFOA is at very high levels: 150x health guidelines.
- This considered a “forever chemical” by the EPA and is being studied extensively.
Let’s look closer at what’s in Santa Ana water.
What’s in Santa Ana water?
Here are the top 7 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Arsenic – Potential effect: Cancer
- Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
- Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
- Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
- Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
- Uranium – Potential effect: Cancer
These are seven of the 35 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
16 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Does Santa Ana have Lead contamination?
No, Santa Ana does not have lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected in 2019 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 Santa Ana’s water come from?
Santa Ana’s water comes from the Lower San Diego Creek watershed.
4 of the 6 EPA assessed water sources in the Lower San Diego Creek watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:
- Bonita Creek
- Newport Bay (Upper)
- Peters Canyon Channel
- San Diego Creek Reach 1
Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. These are in Good condition:
- San Joaquin Freshwater Marsh
- Santa Ana Delhi Channel
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 Santa Ana’s water.
What Can You Do?
Information about water quality in Santa Ana 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 75% 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 any Lead in Santa Ana water.
- Brita can filter 19 contaminants (54%) 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 32 of the 35 contaminants (91.4%), consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your house.
- These are more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but are more effective.
- They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
- 1,4-Dioxane
- Arsenic – health effects in water
- Barium
- Bromide
- Bromodichloromethane – health risks in drinking water
- Bromoform
- Chloroform – side effects
- Fluoride
- Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
- Hexavalent chromium – health effects
- Molybdenum
- Monochloroacetic acid
- Nitrate
- Nitrite
- Perchlorate
- PFBS
- PFHxA
- PFHXS
- PFOA
- PFOS
- Strontium
- Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
- Trichloroacetic acid
- 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.santa-ana.org/ to find contact information for your local officials.