M5.4: Consumer Confidence Report

2017 CCR for San Francisco (I couldn't find the report through EPA which was interesting)

• What is the source of your drinking water?   
• Hetch Hetchy (unfiltered)
• Sunol Valley Water Treatment Plant 
• Harry Tracy Water Treatment Plant 

I'm not sure where water from the two plants originated from but my guess is it's from Hetch Hetchy.

• What chemicals were found in your water that were higher than expected?
• boron was detected at 1.74ppm in the raw water stored at one of the watersheds. Although the detected boron level is above the California Notification Level of 1ppm, the treated water born level from Sunol Valley Water Treatment Plant was 0.2ppm
• What chemicals did you NOT expect to find in your water?

I didn't find anything that surprised me. The list was typical in my opinion. It included: 

aluminum (erosion of natural deposits & some surface water treatment residue), chloride (runoff/leaching from natural deposits), color (naturally occurring organic materials), specific conductance (substances that form ions when in water), sulfate (runoff/leaching from natural deposits), total dissolved solids (runoff/leaching from natural deposits), copper (internal corrosion of household water plumbing systems), lead (internal corrosion of household water plumbing systems), boron, bromide, calcium, chlorate, hardness (as CaCO3), magnesium, potassium, silica, sodium, and strontium.  

• Are there associated health risks with the chemicals found in your water?  

I looked into boron since it was mentioned. Boron exposure is associated with short-term irritation on the upper respiratory tract, nasopharynx, and eyes. There doesn't seem to be long-term affects.

It seems the water quality in San Francisco is safe and good to drink from the tap. I used to drink straight from the tap but since we have a filter at home I thought why not, better safe than sorry. I don't drink bottled waters. It's less common to see people with plastic water bottles nowadays which is great.