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Margate Drinking Water Just OK
• Contains high levels of disinfectant compounds
Sunday,
March 7, 2010
According to reports published by the Environmental Working Group, the quality of Margate’s drinking water has improved significantly in recent years. The sum of disinfection byproducts over the legal limit dropped between years 2004 and 2008 and levels of contaminants exceeding health standards remained relatively unchanged.
Overdevelopment and urban sprawl in South Florida has resulted in drinking water laced with agricultural and industrial pollutants and a slew of chemical disinfection byproducts associated with the water treatment process.
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Margate drinking water is better than some Florida cities and worse than others, as reported by environmental watchdog group EWG.
Of the 458 Margate water quality tests conducted in 2004-2008, chemicals found in Margate tap water exceeded state and federal health guidelines and standards.
Margate’s 22 chemical pollutants exceeded the national average by almost 300 percent in number.
Total trihalomethanes found in Margate tap water over the four-year period remained constant. Total trihalomethanes constitute the sum of four disinfection byproducts: chloroform, bromodichloromethane, dibromochloromethane and bromoform used in the water process.
Total haloacetic acids remained constant as well. Total haloacetic acids refers to the sum of the concentrations of five related disinfection byproducts in a water sample: dichloroacetic acid, trichloroacetic acid, monochloroacetic acid, monobromoacetic acid and dibromoacetic acid.
Although total trihalomethanes and total haloacetic acids over the legal limit subsided in 2007-2008, Thallium was found to be over the legal limit in 2008. Thallium is a highly toxic metal that contaminates the environment due to leaching from ore-processing sites, discharge from electronics, glass, and drug factories and has been used historically as a rodenticide.
Compare Margate to other Florida cities by clicking on the Environmental Working Group (EWG) Water Quality Report. This report shows the results of tests conducted by water utilities in Florida and reported to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
About EWG
EWG assembled an unprecedented database of 20 million drinking water quality tests performed by water utilities since 2004. It reveals a total of 316 contaminants in water supplied to 256 million Americans in 48,000 communities in 45 states. Among the contaminants were 202 chemicals that are not subject to any government regulation or safety standards for drinking water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set enforceable drinking water safety standards for only 114 of the 316 substances detected (EPA 2009b).
To learn more about Margate water, lead content, the city's water treatment process and general health information click on Margate Water Quality Report.
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