If you are planning on visiting Virginia Beach, one of the things you are sure to want to know before arriving is whether the tap water is safe to drink.
Well, the good news is that, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the tap water at Virginia Beach is indeed considered safe to drink.
However, like other drinking water throughout the U.S., it is possible that there are unregulated contaminants in the water. So, let us explore Virginia Beach’s tap water in more detail.
There Are No Recent Violations Concerning the Tap Water at Virginia Beach
The water at Virginia Beach is considered safe to drink because, under the Safe Drinking Water Act, there are no recorded health-based violations.
The EPA’s ECHO database shows that there were zero violations up to June 30, 2022.
The last recorded violation came a little over a decade ago. During the month of May 2012, Virginia Beach had one health-based Safe Drinking Water Act violation due to the contaminant coliform being found in the water.
Are There Contaminants in the Tap Water at Virginia Beach?
There have been various cases around the U.S. of water contamination that have caused people to develop serious health conditions, so it is no wonder that people want to know how safe the drinking water is when they visit somewhere new.
For example, you may have heard of the famous Camp Lejeune scandal where, between 1953 and 1987, people who lived and worked at the Camp Lejeune military base in North Carolina were exposed to contaminants in the water supply.
Dangerous chemicals and pollutants entered the water supply due to the improper disposal of waste at a nearby off-base dry-cleaning company as well as leaks from local industry.
In turn, almost a million people were subject to harmful chemicals and many developed serious health conditions, like renal toxicity and kidney cancer.
If you were exposed to the water at Camp Lejeune and kidney cancer or another health condition developed as a result, you should contact an attorney who is dealing with Camp Lejeune lawsuits to see if you can pursue compensation.
As for Virginia Beach, as mentioned above, the tap water has been declared safe to drink, which means it certainly will not make you sick just by drinking it.
However, like other tap water in the U.S., it could potentially include regulated and unregulated contaminants in trace amounts that have the potential to cause health problems over the long term.
The EPA is currently reviewing its regulations concerning pollutant levels in tap water to find out whether the regulations are strict enough.
Which Pollutants Could Potentially Be in the Water?
In the EPA’s 2020 Water Quality Report for Virginia Beach’s tap water, the contaminants contained in the water are at an acceptable safe level. But just because contaminants are below the allowable level, it does not necessarily mean there are no contaminants in the water.
For example, throughout the U.S., lead is allowed to be in tap water up to a level of 15 ppb, but the EPA is currently looking at getting that down to an ideal level of zero.
The rules concerning copper and arsenic in tap water are also currently being reevaluated.
Furthermore, a number of emerging contaminants in water, such as PFAS substances, which are more commonly known as forever chemicals due to the fact that they do not break down in the environment or in the human body, are being looked at by the EPA.
Get Your Water Tested
While the water at Virginia Beach has been declared safe to drink, the only ways you can be absolutely sure of which contaminants are present and whether they pose any risk is to look at Virginia Beach’s water quality reports or get your tap water tested to find out whether you should filter your water.
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