Groundwater Treatment & Quality

Long Beach has one of the most modern water treatment facilities in the world. In fact, it is the largest groundwater treatment plant in the United States. Coupled with four of the most advanced water quality laboratories, this combination helps explain why the City's high quality drinking water consistently meets or betters all Federal and State drinking water regulations.

Between claims made by people selling water-treatment devices and news reports about the state of our environment, it's easy to forget that the City of Long Beach enjoys a very high quality of drinking water. Our water undergoes a multi-stage treatment process and rigorous testing to ensure it meets strict government standards.

During Fiscal Year 2006, the Groundwater Treatment Plant processed over 8.16 billion gallons of drinking water. Overall, more than 21.76 billion gallons of high-quality water was delivered to the Long Beach community.

Water quality experts continuously sample and test the City's drinking water through our water distribution system to ensure drinking water meets or betters all primary (health-related) and secondary (aesthetic) regulatory standards. During Fiscal Year 2006, the Department's skilled water scientists, engineers and technicians took approximately 15,676 water quality samples and performed over 58,851 tests for more than 140 drinking water contaminants.

Test results on the City's water consistently show that regulated constituents of drinking water are either not detected or are present in amounts far below limits permitted by Federal and State drinking water standards.

 

In accordance with Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations, the Water Department publishes an annual Water Quality Report. This report is available in hard copy to over 170,000 homes and businesses and is also posted on our website. The Water Quality Report describes, with clarity and great detail, the quality of the City's drinking water.