Do you drink the water in Nevada? Should you?

by Ray from Nevada

It is an unfortunate reality that Nevada winds up near the bottom on many so many lists and studies. State and city comparisons of foreclosure rates, unemployment, education, suicide, crime, alcohol abuse, political corruption and more wind up showing Nevada in a negative light. Many Nevadans dismiss these reports as using arbitrary standards or inaccurate information. Others consider them to be outright personal attacks, which makes it easier to ignore problems instead of solving them. A study on the quality of drinking water in American cities was recently released by the Environmental Working Group(EWG). Not surprisingly, Nevada cities again wound up near the bottom of the heap, and not surprisingly the results are controversial with many Nevadans.

Three Nevada cities were ranked on a list comparing the quality of drinking water in 100 cities. Las Vegas was ranked 3rd worst, Reno was ranked 5th worst, and North Las Vegas was ranked 8th worst. Of course smaller cities and towns in Nevada were not ranked or are considered a part of these water districts, but with so many of our smaller towns faced with little money for water treatment and so many centered around potential contaminators such as mining operations, it would not be shocking to hear similar or worse results from the rest of the state. The study itself can be viewed here: http://www.ewg.org/tap-water/rating-big-city-water

Water authorities from both Northern and Southern Nevada have suggested the study is misleading and note that water testing results are within legal limits. The EWG report suggests the Reno area had levels of arsenic, tetrachloroethylene, and manganese that exceeded legal limits in 2005, but were not found to exceed legal limits any other year. Vegas and North Las Vegas are not shown to have exceeded any legal limits during any testing periods of the study. The Truckee Meadows Water Authority, responsible for the drinking water in the Reno area, wasted no time responding. They have called into question not just the conclusions of the study, but the numbers used in the study as well. In front of television cameras, they disputed the report and drank a glass of water to prove Reno tape water is safe to consume. Of course no one suggested the water in the Reno area is so contaminated as to expect one to drop dead from a sip, but what do elevated levels of contaminates like arsenic do over long periods of time? Are Government standards adequate? Are they safe for children and pregnant women? Are they safe for anyone long term? What can be done to make our water cleaner and safer, and is it worth the cost? In a state that is mostly desert and where water rights battles continue to escalate as supplies dwindle, should we just be happy we still have any water at all?