Shoreline, Washington
What is the Water Quality in Shoreline, Washington?
Compared to other US cities, Shoreline water quality ranks in the middle range for contamination excluding Lead.
Most of their 23 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.
- Chloroform is at extremely high levels: 85x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5) are at extremely high levels: 300x health guidelines.
- Haloacetic acids (HAA9) are at extremely high levels: 419x health guidelines.
- HAA5 and HAA9 are byproducts of chlorine treatment, a common method of disinfecting water supplies.
Let’s look closer at what’s in Shoreline water.
What’s in Shoreline 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 and HAA9) – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
These are five of the 23 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
9 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.
Does Shoreline have Lead contamination?
Shoreline has no record of lead in its water in state or federal databases. That does not mean that lead isn’t in the water. It simply hasn’t been reported/recorded.
Whether or not this utility is compliant with regulations is not clear. Contact your local officials directly for testing results and home testing kits.
General Information about Lead Contamination:
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 Shoreline’s water come from?
Shoreline’s water comes from the Shell Creek – Frontal Puget Sound watershed.
Most of the 79 water sources in the Shell Creek – Frontal Puget Sound watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:
- Duwamish Waterway – Multiple sections
- Elliott Bay – Multiple sections
- Lunds Gulch
- Mohlendorph Creek
- Norma Creek
- Picnic Creek
- Pipers Creek
- Possession Sound
- Puget Sound – Multiple areas
- Venema Creek
Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. A few areas in the Central Puget Sound are in Good condition.
Learn more from How’s My Waterway
See below for what you can do to improve Shoreline’s water.
What Can You Do?
Information about water quality in Shoreline 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 65% of contaminants in your drinking water.
- Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of any Lead in Shoreline water.
- Brita can filter 14 of 23 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 19 of the 23 contaminants, consider a whole house 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:
- Bromate
- Bromide
- Chloroform
- Chromium (hexavalent)
- DCPA di-acid degradate – herbicide
- Haloacetic acids (HAA5 and HAA9) – byproduct of chlorination
- Nitrate
- Nitrite
- Strontium
- Total trihalomethanes
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.shorelinewa.gov/government to find contact information for your local officials.