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EWG's Tap Water Database — 2021 UPDATE

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N-Nitrosodi-N-butylamine

Status: No national drinking water standard exists

 

N-Nitrosodi-N-butylamine is one of the DNA-damaging, cancer-causing contaminants called N-nitrosamines that can form during water treatment with the use of certain disinfectants, such as chloramine. Read More.

Pollution of water sources with effluent from municipal wastewater treatment plants and runoff from animal feeding operations contributes to nitrosamine formation. Fifteen different nitrosamines are listed as carcinogens in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Toxicology Program Report on Carcinogens. The federal government has not set a legal limit for nitrosamines in drinking water and water utilities typically do not test for these contaminants. California has set a public health goal for one of the most common nitrosamines, N-nitrosodimethylamine or NDMA, at 0.003 parts per billion in drinking water, a concentration that corresponds to an estimated one-in-one-million cancer risk.

2017-2019:

FOUND

1

states detected

5

utilities detected

372,000

people served

Health concerns for N-nitrosodi-N-butylamine

Cancer

States reporting N-nitrosodi-N-butylamine in drinking water

UTILITIES WITH CONTAMINATION
State UtilitiesPeople Served
California5371,830
MORE
LESS

Filtering technologies that reduce N-nitrosodi-N-butylamine

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Reverse Osmosis

Utilities with the highest amounts of N-nitrosodi-N-butylamine, 2017-2019

ALL UTILITIES
LARGE UTILITIES
UtilityLocationTestsAverage levelPeople served
Golden State Water Company (GSWC) - Florence/GrahamRancho Cordova, CA1 of 10.00250 ppb65,492
Dublin San Ramon Services DistrictDublin, CA2 of 140.000379 ppb75,924
Zone 7 Water Agency*Livermore, CA2 of 140.000379 ppb40
City of LivermoreLivermore, CA2 of 140.000379 ppb27,000
Santa Clara Valley Water District*San Jose, CA2 of 200.000344 ppb0
City of Riverside*Riverside, CA2 of 230.000235 ppb303,871
Glendale Water DepartmentGlendale, CA3 of 970 ppb195,799

* This water utility supplies finished drinking water to at least one other water utility. The purchasing utility is not required to test for or report N-Nitrosodi-N-butylamine, but it likely has the contaminant in its water supply.

UtilityLocationTestsAverage levelPeople served
Golden State Water Company (GSWC) - Florence/GrahamRancho Cordova, CA1 of 10.00250 ppb65,492
Dublin San Ramon Services DistrictDublin, CA2 of 140.000379 ppb75,924
City of LivermoreLivermore, CA2 of 140.000379 ppb27,000
City of Riverside*Riverside, CA2 of 230.000235 ppb303,871
Glendale Water DepartmentGlendale, CA3 of 970 ppb195,799

* This water utility supplies finished drinking water to at least one other water utility. The purchasing utility is not required to test for or report N-Nitrosodi-N-butylamine, but it likely has the contaminant in its water supply.