St. George, Utah

Water Quality in St. George, Utah

Watershed: Middleton Wash – Virgin River

What is the water quality like in St. George, UT?

Let’s dive deeper into what’s in St. George water.

What’s in St. George water?

Here are the 3 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:

1. Nitrate – Potential effect: Cancer
2. Radium – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Uranium – Potential effect: Cancer

These 3 contaminants were analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

All 3 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 St. George’s water come from?

St. George’s water comes from the Middleton Wash – Virgin River watershed.

The only EPA assessed water source in the Middleton Wash – Virgin River watershed is in Impaired condition. This is the Virgin River itself.

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 St. George’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 2 of the 3 contaminants in your drinking water: Radium and Uranium.
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in St. George water.
  • Brita can’t filter any contaminants (They can filter Lead depending on the filter).
    • Brita filters can’t filter Uranium.
    • PUR pitchers are not able to reduce Radium in water.
  • Note: We may receive a commission if you decide to purchase filters through links on this page.
• To filter out All 3 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:
    • Nitrate
    • Radium
    • Uranium

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.sgcity.org/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Utah Cities

Utah Water Quality Page