West Valley City, Utah

Water Quality in West Valley City, Utah

Watershed: Parleys Creek – Jordan River

What is the water quality like in West Valley City, UT?

Let’s dive deeper into what’s in West Valley City water.

What’s in West Valley City water?

Here are the top 7 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. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
6. Radium – Potential effect: Cancer
7. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are seven of the 25 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

11 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 West Valley City’s water come from?

West Valley City’s water comes from the Parleys Creek – Jordan River watershed.

All 5 water sources in the Parleys Creek – Jordan River watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

• Jordan River – 4 segments
• Surplus Canal

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 West Valley 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 22 of the 25 contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in West Valley City water.
  • Brita can filter 10 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 21 of the 25 contaminants in your whole house, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your home.
  • These are more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but can be more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • Arsenic – health risks
    • Barium – health risks in water
    • Bromodichloromethane – health risks in drinking water
    • Bromoform
    • Chloroform – side effects
    • Cyanide – exposure limits
    • Dibromoacetic acid
    • Dibromochloromethane
    • Dichloroacetic acid
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
    • Hexavalent chromium – health effects
    • Mercury
    • Molybdenum
    • Monobromoacetic acid
    • Monochloroacetic acid
    • Nitrate
    • Nitrite
    • Radium
    • Selenium – health risks
    • 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: http://www.wvc-ut.gov/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Utah Cities

Utah Water Quality Page