Sioux City, Iowa

Water Quality in Sioux City, Iowa

Watershed: Perry Creek

What is the water quality like in Sioux City, IA?

Let’s dive deeper into what’s in Sioux City water.

What’s in Sioux City water?

Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:

1. Arsenic – Potential effect: Cancer
2. Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 23 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

10 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.

See the What Can You Do? section below for all of the contaminants you can filter out and how to do it.

Where does Sioux City’s water come from?

Sioux City’s water comes from the Perry Creek watershed.

The single EPA assessed water source in the Perry Creek watershed is in Impaired condition. This is Perry Creek itself, running from the northwest through the city and into the Missouri River.

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:

1. Drinking Water
2. Aquatic Life
3. Fish and Shellfish Consumption
4. Recreation

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

See below for what you can do to improve Sioux City’s water.

Conclusion – What Can You Do?

Information about water quality can be surprising.

But there’s no reason to lose hope. There are things you can do in your household as well as things you can do at a community level.

In Your Household:

• Use Berkey filters with activated carbon to filter out 19 of the 23 contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Sioux City water.
  • Brita can filter 12 (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 20 of the 23 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:
    • 1,4-Dioxane – irritant of the eyes and respiratory tract.
    • Arsenic – health risks
    • Bromodichloromethane – health risks in drinking water
    • Bromoform
    • Chloroform – side effects
    • Chromium (total)
    • Cobalt
    • Dibromoacetic acid
    • Dibromochloromethane
    • Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
    • Hexavalent chromium – health effects
    • Molybdenum
    • Monochloroacetic acid
    • Nitrate
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
    • Trichloroacetic acid

*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.sioux-city.org/government to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Iowa Cities

Iowa Water Quality Page