Drinking water quality · 2024
· Verified
What's in Richmond, VA tap water
1 contaminant in Richmond, VA's water sat at or above a federal limit, led by Chloramine at 1.3x the limit.
- !1 contaminant at or above a federal limit — worst is Chloramine at 1.3x
- !11 of 27 core regulated contaminants reported — 16 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.
- −16 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
- −13 core regulated contaminants never reported (11/27)
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
- Chloramine1.3× the federal limit3–5.1 mg/L · limit 4 mg/L
Holds disinfection further into the pipe network, but is regulated under the same residual-disinfectant cap as chlorine.
higher than 95% of U.S. systems
+19 contaminants were measured and came in below the limitShow all
| Contaminant | Measured | Federal limit |
|---|---|---|
| TTHM | 19–46 ug/L | 80 ug/L |
| HAA5 | 0–32 ug/L | 60 ug/L |
| Combined Radium | 1.7 pCi/L | 5 pCi/L |
| Turbidity | 0.02–0.31 NTU | 1 NTU |
| Lead | 3.7 ug/L | 15 ug/L |
| Fluoride | 0.18–0.77 mg/L | 4 mg/L |
| Copper | 0.063 mg/L | 1.3 mg/L |
| Nitrate Nitrite | 0.22 mg/L | 10 mg/L |
| Barium | 0.028 mg/L | 2 mg/L |
| Gross Alpha | 0.2 pCi/L | 15 pCi/L |
| Sulfate | 37.4 mg/L | — |
| Aluminum | Not detected mg/L | — |
| Manganese | Not detected mg/L | — |
| Nickel | Not detected mg/L | — |
| Sodium | 14.1 mg/L | — |
| Escherichia coli (E. coli) | 1 | 0 |
| Total Coliform | 5 | — |
| TOC | 0.6 | — |
| Gross Beta Particle Activity | 2.6 pCi/L | 4 pCi/L |
What this report doesn't tell you
16 of the 27 contaminants a community water system normally reports do not appear anywhere in Richmond, VA's data. Absent is not the same as absent-from-the-water — it means nobody published a number.