Forest Park’s latest annual water quality report shows trace amounts of disinfectant and radioactive components have been found in the village’s drinking water, but at amounts still safe to drink, officials said.
“Coming from Chicago, everybody’s numbers are pretty much the same,” said Rick Barger, the village’s water operator.
Forest Park’s drinking water comes from the City of Chicago, which distributes water from Lake Michigan to more than 6 million people in Illinois.
Most drinking water contains minerals and other substances, a result of groundwater picking up small levels of contaminants before flowing into a body of water like Lake Michigan. Although these contaminants don’t necessarily pose a health risk (infants and those who are immunocompromised are more vulnerable) the Environmental Protection Agency limits certain contaminants in drinking water, according to the water quality report.
Contaminants that are often present in drinking water include: bacteria, which may come from septic systems and sewage treatment plants, salts and metals from urban stormwater runoff, pesticides from residential use, plus chemical and radioactive contaminants.
Barger said Chicago gave most of the numbers on the village’s April water quality report to Forest Park, including those for lead, inorganic and radioactive contaminants, plus fluoride, sulfate and sodium. But the city doesn’t test for bacteria, a task taken on by the village’s public works department.
Forest Park tests its water’s bacteria monthly in 15 locations, according to Barger. Quarterly, the village is also responsible for testing levels of trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids, byproducts of disinfecting drinking water.
This year, the range of trihalomethanes was no higher than 46.2 parts per billion (ppb), and for haloacetic acids, it was less than 18.9 ppb. Both were well below the maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 80 ppb for trihalomethanes and 60 ppb for haloacetic acids.
Levels of inorganic and radioactive components are also well below MCL. There are less than 0.95 picocuries per liter of radium in our drinking water, which should be below five picocuries per liter. Fluoride, which is added to improve the strength of teeth, has an MCL of four parts per million with actual levels lower than 0.74 parts per million.
“Pretty much everybody in the whole entire Chicagoland area all purchases from Chicago,” Barger said. “So those numbers are all going to look similar from town-to-town.”
The village’s drinking water is treated and safe to drink, officials said.