Water Quality

As part of my due diligence in looking to move to the Keys, I pulled some information on the quality of the drinking water for the Keys and for East Egg.  This came about after reading how bad the drinking water is here in East Egg in the on-line news media, The Patch.

I went to the website, Environmental Working Group to obtain the data which is the same place that The Patch got theirs from.  Granted no place will have 100% perfect water but looking at the results it is amazing that anyone is alive in East Egg.

With the table below you can see that the Keys is in the green which is favorable while East Egg is heavily i the red zone.

	East Egg Drinking Water System	Florida Keys Drinking Water Syatem	National Average
Exceed Health Guidelines	13 chemicals	6 chemicals	4
Health Standard Exceedences	2 chemicals	0 chemicals	0.5
Pollutants Found	28 chemicals	10 chemicals	8

Contaminants Exceeding Health Guidelines For East Egg

Contaminant	Average/ Maximum Result	Health Limit Exceeded	Legal Limit Exceeded
Tetrachloroethylene	1.53 ppb 9.6 ppb	Yes MCLG: 0 ppb	Yes 5 ppb
Nitrate	6.18 ppm 10.4 ppm	Yes 10 ppm	Yes 10 ppm
Trichloroethylene	0.18 ppb 2.6 ppb	Yes MCLG: 0 ppb	No 5 ppb
Alpha particle activity	1.27 pCi/L 3.25 pCi/L	Yes MCLG: 0 pCi/L	No 15 pCi/L
Radium-228	1.09 pCi/L 1.79 pCi/L	Yes MCLG: 0 pCi/L	No 5 pCi/L
Dieldrin	<0.01 ppb 0.05 ppb	Yes <0.01 ppb	Legal at any level
Heptachlor epoxide	<0.01 ppb 0.05 ppb	Yes MCLG: 0 ppb	No 0.2 ppb
Bromoform	0.03 ppb 0.7 ppb	Yes MCLG: 0 ppb	No 80 ppb
Chlordane	0.02 ppb 0.45 ppb	Yes MCLG: 0 ppb	No 2 ppb
Lead (total)	0.06 ppb 0.2 ppb	Yes MCLG: 0 ppb	No
Dibromochloromethane	0.02 ppb 0.7 ppb	Yes 0.4 ppb	No 80 ppb
Carbon tetrachloride	<0.01 ppb 0.05 ppb	Yes MCLG: 0 ppb	No 5 ppb
1,2-Dichloroethane	<0.01 ppb 0.23 ppb	Yes MCLG: 0 ppb	No 5 ppb

Contaminants Exceeding Health Guidelines For The Keys

Contaminant	Average/ Maximum Result	Health Limit Exceeded	Legal Limit Exceeded
Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs)	35.19 ppb 58 ppb	Yes 9.8 ppb	No 80 ppb
Total haloacetic acids (HAAs)	12.7 ppb 37 ppb	Yes 0.7 ppb	No 60 ppb
Lead (total)	1.07 ppb 2.4 ppb	Yes MCLG: 0 ppb	No
Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate	0.17 ppb 1.2 ppb	Yes MCLG: 0 ppb	No 6 ppb
Alpha particle activity (excl radon and uranium)	0.23 pCi/L 0.7 pCi/L	Yes MCLG: 0 pCi/L	No 15 pCi/L
Radium-226	0.25 pCi/L 0.5 pCi/L	Yes MCLG: 0 pCi/L	No 5 pCi/L

The only thing that scares me right now is that the lead content in the Keys is higher than that here in East Egg.  I am not too certain about the other contaminants in how they will effect your health but at least it appears that the water quality in the Keys is far better than here in East Egg.

'till next time.