Drinking water quality · 2024
· Verified
What's in Des Moines, IA tap water
1 contaminant in Des Moines, IA's water sat at or above a federal limit, led by Cis Dichloroethylene 12 at 7.1x the limit.
- !1 contaminant at or above a federal limit — worst is Cis Dichloroethylene 12 at 7.1x
- !13 of 27 core regulated contaminants reported — 14 never appear in this report
- ✓No open federal violations
+How this score is calculated
Every system starts at 100. Points come off for measured levels, for the federal violation record, and for how much of the core regulated set the utility actually reported. All three inputs are the utility's own published numbers and EPA's own records.
- −36 contaminants at or above a federal limit
- −0 contaminants within 20% of a limit
- −0 open health-based violations
- −0 open monitoring / reporting violations
- −0 health-based violations resolved in the last 5 years
- −9 core regulated contaminants never reported (13/27)
A 90–100 · B 80–89 · C 70–79 · D 60–69 · F below 60. A system reporting under a third of the core set is capped at C however clean its numbers look — a short report is not a clean bill of health.
Full grading methodology, constant for constant →What to worry about
- Cis Dichloroethylene 127.1× the federal limit0.5 mg/L · limit 0.07 mg/L
+17 contaminants were measured and came in below the limitShow all
| Contaminant | Measured | Federal limit |
|---|---|---|
| Chlorine | 1.7–3 mg/L | 4 mg/L |
| Nitrate | 7.15 mg/L | 10 mg/L |
| Gross Alpha | 9 pCi/L | 15 pCi/L |
| Fluoride | 1.6 mg/L | 4 mg/L |
| Combined Radium | 2 pCi/L | 5 pCi/L |
| Turbidity | 0.21 NTU | 1 NTU |
| Copper | 0.006–0.177 mg/L | 1.3 mg/L |
| Arsenic | 0.001 mg/L | 0.01 mg/L |
| Barium | 0.07 mg/L | 2 mg/L |
| Dalapon | 0.2 ug/L | 200 ug/L |
| Perfluorohexanesulfonic acid | 0–0.0035 ng/L | 10 ng/L |
| Lead | Not detected mg/L | 0.015 mg/L |
| Lithium | 9.5–14.8 | — |
| Sodium | 105 mg/L | — |
| Total Coliform | 151 | — |
| TOC | 3.49 mg/L | — |
| Atrazine | 0.2 | — |
What this report doesn't tell you
14 of the 27 contaminants a community water system normally reports do not appear anywhere in Des Moines, IA's data. Absent is not the same as absent-from-the-water — it means nobody published a number.