See The Latest 'Tap Water Database' Results For Newtown

NEWTOWN, PA — A report released Wednesday by the Environmental Working Group says there are contaminants in harmful levels in drinking water sources across Pennsylvania, including those in Newtown.

The nonprofit Environmental Working Group released its updated Tap Water Database Wednesday. The database is complied by collaborating with outside scientists, and using aggregated and analyzed data from almost 50,000 local water utilities.

Read more on the Environmental Working Group’s data sources and methodology.

According to the updated database, water from Newtown Artesian Water Company contains eight contaminants that exceed the group's health guidelines, which are different from those mandated by the government.

Newtown Artesian Water complies with EPA standards, but the EWG says there is a troubling discrepancy between the current legal limits for contaminants and the most recent authoritative studies of what is safe to consume.

“Legal does not necessarily equal safe,” Sydney Evans, a science analyst at the environmental group, told Patch.

“A lot of these legal limits are outdated and not necessarily the safe level, and the EWG really wants to fill that gap,” Evans said. “The federal government has not been able to, or is not willing to, set those new regulations to protect public health. We’re trying to fill the gap to let people know, based on the latest science, what the safe levels of contaminants in water are.”

In Newtown, the group said the following contaminants were found in the supply supply between 2012 and 2017.

You can view the full EWG report for Newtown Artesian Water Company here.

You can view the most recent water quality report from Newtown Artesian here.

Bromodichloromethane

• Potential effect: cancer
• Newtown Artesian rate: 7.13 ppb
• EWG health guideline: 0.06 ppb
• No legal limit

Chloroform

• Potential effect: cancer
• Newtown Artesian rate: 14.4 ppb
• EWG health guideline: 0.4 ppb
• No legal limit

Chromium (hexavalent)

• Potential effect: cancer
• Newtown Artesian rate: 0.163 ppb
• EWG health guideline: 0.02 ppb
• No legal limit

Dibromochloromethane

• Potential effect: cancer
• Newtown Artesian rate: 3.42 ppb
• EWG health guideline: 0.1 ppb
• No legal limit

Nitrate

• Potential effect: cancer
• Newtown Artesian rate: 3.08 ppm
• EWG health guideline: 0.14 ppm
• Legal limit: 10 ppm

Radium, combined (-226 & -228)

• Potential effect: cancer
• Newtown Artesian rate: 1.07 pCi/L
• EWG health guideline: 0.05 pCi/L
• Legal limit: 5 pCi/L

Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs)

• Potential effect: cancer
• Newtown Artesian rate: 28.5 ppb
• EWG health guideline: 0.15 ppb
• Legal limit: 80 ppb

Uranium

• Potential effect: cancer
• Newtown Artesian rate: 4.42 pCi/L
• EWG health guideline: 0.43 pCi/L
• Legal limit: 20 pCi/L