Safe Drinking Water is Top Priority

Safe Drinking Water is Top Priority at NTMWD

Recently, an online publication issued a list of “The 25 U.S. Cities with the Worst Drinking Water.” This report is being circulated online and four NTMWD Member Cities are included. In fact, 16 of the cities listed are from Texas, many from the DFW area. We have significant concerns about the methods used to develop this list, which is NOT based on scientific studies. Here are key facts to counter these unsubstantiated claims:

  • NTMWD works with our Member and Customer cities to conduct tests on over 250,000 water samples collected throughout the region annually.
  • The water delivered by the District and our cities meets all federal and state water quality standards. We issue monthly water quality reports and an annual Consumer Confidence Report, which can be found online at: https://www.ntmwd.com/water-quality/.
  • The list appears to have been created using non-scientific methods to arrive at a composite score for each city that includes:
    • Participation in voluntary city water “taste test” contests.
    • Ratings developed by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) based on their own “health guidelines” and interpretations of municipal water quality reports listing contaminants. The EWG is NOT a regulatory agency.
    • Areas with “pollution potential according to the Environmental Protection Agency” – apparently a city gets deductions on its score if there are manufacturing facilities within a certain radius.

It is irresponsible for this group to make unsubstantiated claims of poor water quality in these cities. Their list is based on highly subjective and non-scientific interpretations which may raise an unnecessary alarm from the public. Often studies like these are promoted as a way to market products such as home filtration systems. The EWG website also actively promotes the use of home filtration systems.

Our water quality experts test more than 250,000 water samples annually in our state of the art laboratory to meet or exceed water quality standards.