An interactive map from DailyMail.com has revealed that alarming levels of toxic chemicals are 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 hormone problems, developmental delays in newborns and infertility.
Water utilities are only allowed to have microscopic amounts of these chemicals in their water systems and must clean their water within 30 days if levels become too high.
But data shows that the number of water quality violations — when tests show drinking water is unsafe — is rising, by 15,000 in 2023, the last year available.
That was five percent more than the 14,300 in 2022, and 10.3 percent more than the low of 13,600 the year before.
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Nearly a quarter of Americans believe their tap water is not safe to drink, and now a map has revealed the hardest-hit states.
By state, Alaska — where rivers have regularly been polluted with metals leached from melting underwater sediment — had the dirtiest water from 2019 to 2023, followed by New Mexico and Louisiana. No state had a clean bill of health during the five-year period.
To determine which states have the worst drinking water, DailyMail.com pulled data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) dashboard on water safety violations and human health hazards.
A water safety violation occurs when levels of at least one of 90 hazardous substances – including copper and bacteria – are above the safe limit.
This site totals the number of violations per state for the years 2019 through 2023 and divides the number by five to reveal the average per year.
Then, the number of impurities per 100,000 people was calculated by dividing the average number by the state population and multiplying by 100,000.
The top five worst states were Oklahoma and Wyoming. The bottom five were Hawaii, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida.
Climate change is partly responsible for poor drinking water quality, including in Alaska (photo), where melting permafrost releases toxic chemicals into drinking water, turning it orange
The above shows Alkali Creek in Wyoming that has become contaminated with waste from oil and gas companies. The waste discharges into groundwater supplies and then ends up in tap water
To reveal the states with the worst drinking water, DailyMail.com pulled data from the EPA dashboard on water safety violations (Stock Image)
The states with the worst water quality often had drinking water contaminated by industrial activities.
In Alaska, Louisiana and Wyoming, mining and petroleum companies regularly dump waste into rivers, which then leaches into groundwater that supplies homes, contaminating tap water.
But climate change is also playing a role, with Alaska’s problems further exacerbated by the melting of permafrost, releasing toxic chemicals and turning the state’s rivers a rusty orange color.
In Louisiana, rising sea levels and weaker currents in the Mississippi River are causing seawater to advance inland. This means that water companies have to use more disinfectants in their drinking water, and that is possible toxic in high quantities.
At the same time, water sources can become contaminated by naturally occurring minerals – such as arsenic – with water companies receiving violations if they do not remove them from tap water.
This is the case in New Mexico, where groundwater is often contaminated with arsenic due to previous volcanic activity in the state, and in Oklahoma, where groundwater often contains arsenic and chromium – a mineral found in rocks.
The EPA conducts more than 53,000 visits to water systems annually and requires each to provide the agency with quality test results.
Those who have unsafe levels of a contaminant in their water will be given 30 days to clean up their water supply.
If they fail, a system could suffer enforcement action and potentially be fined up to $48,000 per day for which tap water was unsafe to drink.
Campaigners have been urging politicians for years to clean up America’s water supply, much of which still uses old lead pipes.
And the Biden administration has heeded the calls, passing a law in April setting maximum levels for six toxic PFAS chemicals in drinking water.
Officials have also committed $3 billion to replace aging lead pipes in water systems and ensure clean water is delivered to communities.
In many cases, home plumbing – the pipe that connects a home to the electrical grid – is still made of lead, and the money is intended to replace it.
Water quality in the US is governed by the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) of 1976, which sets legal maximum limits for 90 contaminants.
An EPA spokesperson said: ‘The data reported to the EPA consists of violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act regulations.
“Compliance data reported to the EPA does not directly measure drinking water quality as this depends on the type of violation and other factors unique to each water system.”