The haloacetic acids are frequently found in drinking water. These pollutants can arise when chlorine and other disinfectants interact with water. There are many health risks associated with overexposure to haloacetic acids, including cancer, extreme skin irritation and congenital disabilities.
EWG reports that the total amount of haloacetic acids in McHenry’s water is 7.19 ppb. While this total is under the legal limit of 60 ppb, this limit is far too lax and has not been updated in over 20 years. EWG, on the other hand, sets a much stricter health guideline of 0.1 ppb. Alarmingly, McHenry’s total is 72x higher than that guideline!
Here are the results for each of the individual acids:
- Dibromoacetic acid – 0.875 ppb (22x higher than the EWG limit of 0.04 ppb)
- Dichloroacetic acid – 1.48 ppb (7.4x higher than the EWG limit of 0.2 ppb)
- Monobromoacetic acid – None detected
- Monochloroacetic acid – None detected
- Trichloroacetic acid – 4.83 ppb (48x higher than the EWG limit of 0.1 ppb)