A banned organochlorine insecticide that turns into dieldrin in soil and in the body — and was never given a federal drinking-water limit.
A banned organochlorine insecticide that turns into dieldrin in soil and in the body — and was never given a federal drinking-water limit.
Gets in from treatment chemicals and pipes; what the levels in your water actually mean.
A metal from flame retardants and plastics that can leach into drinking water.
The one you can't taste, smell, or see — common in well water and regulated at 10 ppb.
Fibers shed by decaying asbestos-cement water mains; regulated at 7 million fibers per liter.
Farm runoff herbicides that wash into reservoirs and wells every spring.
A mineral metal tied to drilling and industrial waste; regulated at 2 ppm.
A gasoline and solvent chemical — even tiny amounts in water are a red flag.
A tar-family chemical, cousin to cigarette smoke, that leaches from old tank and pipe linings; limit 0.2 ppb.
An industrial metal from coal ash and manufacturing that can reach groundwater.
A natural element that runs high in some well water and is tough on plants and people at high levels.
When your well turns salty: what saltwater intrusion is and what actually fixes it.
A disinfection byproduct formed when ozone treats water containing bromide; limit 10 ppb.
Chlorine's chemical cousin — where it shows up in treated water and why it matters.
A trihalomethane created when chlorine meets natural organic matter in your water.
A toxic metal from batteries and plating that can leach from pipes and wells.
The hardness mineral — good for you, rough on your pipes and water heater.
A phased-out industrial solvent still seeping through groundwater; limit 5 ppb.
The disinfectant many cities use instead of chlorine — harder to remove, and standard carbon struggles with it.
The banned termite chemical pumped into soil around home foundations for decades; still turning up in wells, federal limit 2 ppb.
It keeps water safe — and it's the taste most people are trying to filter out.
The chlorine byproduct nobody mentioned — formed right inside treated tap water.
The Erin Brockovich contaminant from Hinkley — still in America's tap water today.
A battery-age metal showing up in water near mining and industry.
Leaches from your own plumbing — the blue-green stains are the tell.
Toxins from algae blooms that can shut down a city's water — it happened in Toledo.
A banned soil fumigant that sterilized the farmworkers who made it — still lingering in groundwater, federal limit 0.2 ppb.
The most famous banned pesticide of all — sprayed for decades, persistent for decades more, and never given a federal drinking-water limit.
A haloacetic acid byproduct of disinfection, tracked inside the HAA family.
Another trihalomethane from chlorination — part of the TTHM total on your water report.
One of the five regulated haloacetic acids (HAA5) formed during disinfection.
A banned organochlorine — both a pesticide itself and what aldrin turns into; persistent in soil, never federally limited in water.
The most toxic member of the dioxin family — limited at just 30 parts per quadrillion.
What a positive bacteria test actually means — and what to do next.
First coal ash, now data centers — who pays for the water they use and pollute?
Added on purpose, debated for decades — what happens when there's too much.
Two chlorine-resistant parasites — cyst-rated filtration is how you stop them.
The world's most-used weed killer finally gets a drinking-water test.
Five disinfection byproducts regulated as a group at 60 ppb.
A banned corn and termite insecticide that converts to heptachlor epoxide in the soil; federal limit 0.4 ppb.
What heptachlor turns into — longer-lived than its parent and the form most likely to be in a well today; federal limit 0.2 ppb.
The lightest element — and the truth about "hydrogen water" claims.
The rotten-egg smell in well water: causes and real fixes.
Orange stains, metallic taste, ruined laundry — the well-water classic.
Where it comes from and what actually removes it — there is no safe level.
Why it's a shower problem, not a drinking problem — the bacteria behind Legionnaires' disease.
The battery metal turning up in groundwater across the Southwest.
The other hardness mineral — one your body actually wants.
Black stains and bitter water — and a health question for infants.
From coal plants to your glass: how mercury travels into water supplies.
What they are, why they're in tap and bottled water, and how to filter them.
The health concerns, honestly weighed — and the filtration that removes them.
A mining and industry metal your body needs in traces — and not in excess.
The gasoline additive that leaked from tanks into wells across America.
Leaches from faucets and fittings — a common contact allergen in water, too.
Fertilizer runoff's signature — the risk is highest for babies and wells.
Dissolved oxygen explained — what it does in your water and what it doesn't.
Rocket-fuel chemistry in groundwater — California and Massachusetts already regulate it.
The dry-cleaning solvent that became a groundwater contaminant.
What PFOA and PFOS are — the "forever chemicals" — and what actually removes them.
Trace medicines in tap water: what's really there and what removes it.
The nutrient that feeds algae blooms when it runs off into waterways.
What softeners add to your water — and who needs to watch it.
The radioactive one you've never thought about, hiding in some well water.
The invisible risk in well water — it leaves the water and enters your air.
Essential in traces, toxic in excess — a coal-country water issue.
One of Earth's most common elements — what it's doing in your glass.
Used to kill bacteria for centuries — what modern water levels mean.
Softener salt, road salt, and your blood pressure — the sodium story.
A bone-seeking element the EPA has had its eye on for years.
The bitter, laxative mineral — EPA guideline 250 mg/L — common in wells.
The PFAS that falls from the sky — the smallest forever chemical, now everywhere.
One of the most toxic metals on the list, regulated at just 2 ppb.
An HAA5 disinfection byproduct with its own health goal of 20 ppb.
The industrial degreaser behind some of America's worst groundwater cases.
The four chlorine byproducts regulated together at 80 ppb.
Naturally radioactive and a kidney toxin — in Perth Amboy's own water report.
A steel-age metal showing up in groundwater near industry.
The plastic-making chemical with a health goal of zero.
From galvanized pipes — mostly a taste issue, with limits worth knowing.
Methyl chloroform — the phased-out industrial degreaser that still turns up in groundwater near old factories; federal limit 200 ppb.
The degreaser's lesser-known sibling from chemical plants; federal limit 5 ppb — and New Jersey's own limit is stricter, at 3 ppb.
Vinylidene chloride — the plastics building block that escapes to air from rivers but persists underground; limit 7 ppb, and the health goal is the same 7.
Ethylene dichloride — the PVC building block; the solvent family's one zero health goal, with a limit of 5 ppb.
A soil fumigant leftover with no federal limit; New Jersey regulates it at 30 parts per trillion.
The textile mills' dye-carrier chemical; federal limit 70 ppb, and the EPA's listed effect is changes in the adrenal glands.
An industrial solvent contaminant that slips through most standard filters — RO is the reliable answer.