An interactive map from DailyMail.com has revealed alarming levels of toxic chemicals lurking in the tap water of some US states.
Every year, environmental health chiefs test drinking water for substances such as lead, arsenic and “forever chemicals” because of their links to hormonal problems, delays in newborn development and infertility.
Water companies are only allowed to have microscopic amounts of these chemicals in their water system and must clean the water within 30 days if the levels rise too high.
But data shows that the number of water quality violations (when tests show drinking water is unsafe) is increasing: 15,000 were recorded in 2023, the latest year available.
That was five percent more than the 14,300 recorded in 2022, and 10.3 percent more than the low of 13,600 recorded the previous year.
Nearly a quarter of Americans believe tap water is unsafe to drink and now a map has revealed the worst-affected states.
By state, Alaska, where rivers have been regularly contaminated with metals that had leached as underwater sediments melted, had the dirtiest water between 2019 and 2023, followed by New Mexico and Louisiana. No state had a clean bill of health during the five-year period.
To reveal the states with the worst drinking water, DailyMail.com pulled data from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) dashboard on water safety violations for human health risks.
A water safety violation is recorded when levels of at least one of 90 hazardous substances, including copper and bacteria, are above the safe limit.
This site adds up the number of violations by state for the years 2019 to 2023 and divides the count by five, to reveal the average by year.
A rate of impurities per 100,000 people was then calculated by dividing the average number by the state’s population and multiplying by 100,000.
The five worst states were Oklahoma and Wyoming. The bottom five were Hawaii, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida.
Climate change is partially to blame for poor drinking water quality, including in Alaska (pictured), where melting permafrost is releasing toxic chemicals into drinking water, turning it orange.
The above shows Alkali Creek in Wyoming, which has been contaminated with waste from oil and gas companies. The waste leaches into groundwater and then ends up in tap water.
To reveal the states with the worst drinking water, DailyMail.com pulled data from the EPA’s panel on water safety violations (file image)
States with poorer water quality often had drinking water contaminated by industrial activities.
In Alaska, Louisiana and Wyoming, mining and oil companies regularly dump waste into rivers, which then seep into the groundwater that supplies homes, contaminating tap water.
But climate change is also involved, and Alaska’s problems are further compounded by melting permafrost that releases toxic chemicals and turns the state’s rivers a rusty orange color.
In Louisiana, rising sea levels and a weakening flow of the Mississippi River are causing seawater to move inland. This forces water companies to use more disinfectant in drinking water, which can be toxic in high quantities.
At the same time, water sources can be contaminated by naturally occurring minerals, such as arsenic, and water companies receive violations if they do not remove them from tap water.
This is the case in New Mexico, where groundwater is often contaminated with arsenic linked to past volcanic activities in the state, and in Oklahoma, where groundwater often contains arsenic and chromium, a rock mineral.
The EPA conducts more than 53,000 visits to water systems each year and requires all to provide the agency with quality test results.
Those who have dangerous levels of a contaminant in their water have 30 days to clean up their water supply.
If they fail, a system can face enforcement action and possibly be fined up to $48,000 per day for the fact that the tap water was unsafe to drink.
Activists have been urging politicians to clean up America’s water supply for years, and much of it still uses old lead pipes.
And the Biden administration has heeded the calls, passing a law in April setting maximum levels of six toxic PFAS chemicals in drinking water.
Officials have also made $3 billion available to replace aging lead pipes in water systems and ensure clean water is delivered to communities.
In many cases, home service lines (the pipes that connect a home to the main supply) are still made of lead, and money goes toward replacing it.
Water quality in the US is governed by the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) of 1976, which sets maximum legal limits for 90 contaminants.
An EPA spokesperson said: ‘The data reported to EPA consists of violations of Safe Drinking Water Act regulations.
“Compliance data reported to EPA does not directly measure drinking water quality, as this depends on the type of violation and other factors unique to each water system.”