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Whether you’re brand-new to Ventura County or a longtime resident, it’s reasonable to wonder about the local water quality. After all, recent droughts and past wildfires could theoretically affect the quality of the water that comes out of your tap.
Luckily, it’s generally safe to drink the water in Ventura County. But that doesn’t mean it necessarily tastes good. If you are concerned about your tap water, look into a water softener or Drinking Water System!
Under state and federal regulations, the county creates an annual report on water quality.
In this short guide, we’ll relay the most recent findings and discuss the steps you can take to upgrade your tap water.
If you live in Ventura County, you already know that drought conditions arise on a frequent basis.
Therefore, most of the drinking water in your tap comes from another source.1
The California Aqueduct is a concrete waterway that often flows above ground—therefore, it is exposed to open air, rain, runoff, and anything else it comes into contact with. As your water makes its long journey, it’s exposed to numerous potential contaminants.
Heat and drought lead to evaporation, concentrating the water. This can lead to even higher concentrations of unwanted substances.
However, purification plants and frequent testing ensure that water never exceeds safety levels set by the FDA and local authorities.
We’ve already told you that you can drink Ventura’s tap water.
But to assess Ventura county water quality, we’ll look at two measures: safety and aesthetics. If you want to drink the recommended eight glasses of water per day, you want to make sure it looks and tastes appealing!
Ventura water is exposed to potentially harmful substances first as it travels, and then again when it’s disinfected.
After treatment, the county found the following (safe) levels of hazards:
While the above levels are safe for adults and children, low levels of contaminants could take a greater toll on immunocompromised individuals.
If you or a family member has an immune deficiency, it may be worth upgrading the quality of your drinking water.
We’ve all been to an area where the tap water was just bad, whether because it smelled like rotten eggs, tasted like pennies, or simply looked wrong.
The good news? In Ventura, water has:
Some results were less impressive. The county found more aluminum than it would like from the perspective of taste.
Likewise, testing found numerous minerals in the drinking water, including small amounts of chloride, sulfate, dissolved solids, calcium, and magnesium.
While none of these are concerning in and of themselves, the combination of numerous minerals can affect water flavor and “hardness.”
You want calcium and magnesium in your diet. But you don’t necessarily want it in your water.
Why is that?
Hard water has a number of downsides in regards to taking a shower or trying to keep down the cost of homeownership. Hard water has the potential impacts on the following areas:2
Finally, many people dislike the taste of hard water, finding it chalky or minerally. Unfortunately, this is the case for many residents of Ventura County. Check out the water hardness level in Ventura, California.
Hard water affects people and their pets. Hopefully, your cat and dog aren’t too picky when it comes to water. But some pets, especially fish, will almost certainly have a negative reaction.
Ventura County notes that its water is not suitable in fish tanks. The high concentration of chloramines can affect fish, shellfish, and other aquatic life.
If you’re moving to Ventura with a scaly friend (or thinking of getting one), consult with your local pet store to find a suitable filter.
The water supplied to you by Ventura County, and your municipality can be affected by other factors in the local vicinity.
If you’d like to improve your water quality, there are numerous solutions. You might choose to upgrade your entire household or to put a filter in one specific area of your house for clean water.
A whole-house system can improve the taste of your drinking water and cut down on your overall maintenance costs. But if you’re renting and only care about the taste of your water, troubleshoot the specific area that concerns you: your bathroom, drinking water, etc.
You have several options for filtering out potentially harmful substances.
True “water softeners” use ionic exchange to pull minerals out of drinking water.
Water softeners help to eliminate many of the problems outlined above. Since minerals are completely removed, they’ll no longer degrade pipes, dehydrate skin, or show up on your glasses and flatware.
Sometimes called “salt-free water systems,” water conditioning systems don’t replace minerals with sodium. Rather, they change the chemical composition of minerals so that they stop collecting in pipes and appliances.
Minerals are still present in the water but are not having the same damaging effects.
If you want to go the extra mile, a more advanced reverse osmosis system pushes water through membranes to remove minerals along with the following compounds:
This is a popular choice for coffee aficionados who want to brew with perfectly pure, clean-tasting water. It also ensures better-tasting ice cubes.
It’s one thing for your water to be safe.
It’s another thing altogether to actually look forward to a glass from your tap.
While bottled water can be a stopgap solution for issues of taste and drinkability, plastic water bottles ultimately contribute to the pollution that degrades our collective water quality over time. In contrast, adding a home filter saves on plastic while extending the lifespan of your appliances and piping.
At Rayne Water, we have solutions for every budget, from reverse osmosis to water conditioning to water softening. Get in touch today to make your Ventura County water supply clean and sustainable.
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