Drinking water quality · 2024
· Verified
· PWSID OR4100657
What's in Portland, OR tap water
1 contaminant in Portland, OR's water sat at or above a federal limit, led by Turbidity at 1.6x the limit.
- !1 contaminant at or above a federal limit — worst is Turbidity at 1.6x
- !1 open health-based violation on the federal record
- !10 of 27 core regulated contaminants reported — 17 never appear in this report
+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.
- −21 contaminants at or above a federal limit
- −0 contaminants within 20% of a limit
- −15 open health-based violations
- −0 open monitoring / reporting violations
- −0 health-based violations resolved in the last 5 years
- −14 core regulated contaminants never reported (10/27)
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
- Turbidity1.6× the federal limit0.22–1.65 NTU · limit 1 NTU
High turbidity can shelter microbes from disinfection; the EPA enforces it through a treatment-technique standard.
higher than 90% of U.S. systems
+15 contaminants were measured and came in below the limitShow all
| Contaminant | Measured | Federal limit |
|---|---|---|
| Chlorine Total | 0.38–2.53 mg/L | 4 mg/L |
| HAA5 | 14.2–33.7 ug/L | 60 ug/L |
| TTHM | 16.8–41 ug/L | 80 ug/L |
| Lead | 0.0044 mg/L | 0.015 mg/L |
| Arsenic | 0–1.1 ug/L | 10 ug/L |
| Copper | 0.14 mg/L | 1.3 mg/L |
| Nitrate | 0–0.31 mg/L | 10 mg/L |
| Fluoride | 0–0.09 mg/L | 4 mg/L |
| Barium | 0.0008–0.01 mg/L | 2 mg/L |
| Manganese | 20.4 ug/L | — |
| Sodium | 12 mg/L | — |
| Escherichia coli (E. coli) | 0–26 | — |
| Giardia lamblia | 0–0.04 | — |
| Total Coliform | 0.6 % | — |
| Radon | 152.2 pCi/L | — |
What this report doesn't tell you
17 of the 27 contaminants a community water system normally reports do not appear anywhere in Portland, OR's data. Absent is not the same as absent-from-the-water — it means nobody published a number.
+Full detail: PFAS testing, water source, historical monitoring, and the federal violation record
Where your water comes from · EPA SDWIS
Portland, OR's drinking water comes from ground water, drawn from 28 sources.
Source
- SGA · 14
- TSA · 6
- BLA · 4
- BULL RUN RIVER
- + 3 more
Treatment
- TP FOR BULL RUN
- TP FOR GROUND WATER PUMP STATION
Distribution
Compliance history
Federal Safe Drinking Water Act violation & enforcement records (EPA SDWIS). A violation is a regulatory determination by the state or EPA — separate from the measured levels above.
- Maximum contaminant level exceededHealth-based3 violations on record · most recent Sep 2013resolved
- Treatment technique violationHealth-based1 violation on record · most recent Dec 20171 open
Source: EPA SDWIS / ECHO. View the full federal record on EPA ECHO ↗