Southaven, Mississippi

What is the Water Quality in Southaven, Mississippi?

Compared to other US cities, Southaven water quality ranks in the middle range for contamination excluding Lead.

Most of their 19 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.

• Radium is at extremely high levels: 36x health guidelines.

Let’s look closer at what’s in Southaven water.

What’s in Southaven water?

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

1. Dibromochloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
2. Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Haloacetic acids (HAA9) – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Radium – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 19 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

These 5 contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.

Does Southaven have Lead contamination?

Yes, Southaven has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2016 through 2018 showed concentrations up to 0.9 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 Southaven’s water come from?

Southaven’s water comes from the Lower Nonconnah Creek watershed.

All 12 water sources in the Lower Nonconnah Creek watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

• Black Bayou
• Cane Creek
• Days Creek
• Hurricane Creek
• McKellar Lake
• Nonconnah Creek
• Tenmile Creek
• Wolf River Harbor

Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition.

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

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

What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Southaven 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 72% of contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Southaven water.
  • Brita can filter 8 of 19 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 16 of the 19 contaminants, consider a whole house water filtration system.
  • 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:
    • Barium
    • Bromodichloromethane
    • Bromoform
    • Chromium (hexavalent)
    • Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – byproduct of chlorine treatment
    • Haloacetic acids (HAA9) – byproduct of chlorine treatment
    • Nitrate
    • Nitrite
    • Radium
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) – byproduct of chlorine treatment

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: http://southaven.org/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Mississippi Cities

Mississippi Water Quality Page