Missoula News

Water Pollution in Missoula

Toxins in Water: On Tap in Montana

By Amy Linn, 12-21-09

In “Toxic Waters,” a fine New York Times series about water safety around the nation, reporter Charles Duhigg found that millions of people across the country are drinking contaminated tap water, and are getting sick as a result.

“More than 20 percent of the nation’s water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the last five years, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data,” Duhigg writes. “That law requires communities to deliver safe tap water to local residents. But since 2004, the water provided to more than 49 million people has contained illegal concentrations of chemicals like arsenic or radioactive substances like uranium, as well as dangerous bacteria often found in sewage.”

The series also gives readers a glimpse of how local water systems stack up. Below is information on water in Missoula and other Montana cities. The Times data comes from the Environmental Working Group, which maintains a National Drinking Water Database.

--The cities with the cleanest water were Bozeman and Billings (in a near tie for first place); followed by Missoula, Kalispell, Butte, Helena and, with the worst water, Great Falls.

--Missoula water had 3 contaminants below legal limits but above health guidelines. The pollutants were combined uranium, lead and the solvent tetrachloroethylene, or PERC, a pollutant (and de-greaser) used in dry cleaning and other industries.

-- Missoula had 18 contaminants within health guidelines and legal limits, including arsenic, cadmium, chloroform, and copper.

--Bozeman had 1 contaminant below legal limits but above health guidelines and 13 within the guidelines; Billings had 2 contaminants in the first category and 12 in the second; Kalispell was 4 and 14.

--Butte had 1 contaminant above legal limits: haloacetic acids (HAAs), which are disinfection byproducts. It had 1 contaminant below legal limits but above health guidelines, and 11 within the guidelines.

--Helena’s water had 2 contaminants—chloroform and trihalomethanes (TTHMs)— above the legal limits. Helena also had 3 contaminants below legal limits but above health guidelines, and 13 contaminants within the guidelines.

--Great Falls had 2 contaminants—HAAs and TTHMs—above the legal limits. It had another 4 of them below legal limits and above health guidelines, and 12 within the guidelines.

The good news? In all the cities there were nearly 100 or more contaminants that weren’t found in the water, including everything from Alachlor to xylenes.

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