2-Methoxyethanol
Overview
2-Methoxyethanol is a solvent, and EPA classes it as one. It is used in inks, dyes, resins and de-icing fluid. EPA monitored it nationwide in 2018 to 2020.
In Florida, 2-Methoxyethanol was found in 3 community water systems serving about 146,950 people. Nobody has set a legal limit for it, so no reading here counts as an exceedance and no utility is required to do anything about it.
Where it comes from: Industrial discharge; solvents, inks and coatings.
The standards
Enforceable. A utility must stay at or under this.
Health-based, not enforceable. Often lower than the limit, sometimes zero.
Nobody has published a health goal for this substance, official or otherwise.
Health effects the EPA associates with it: EPA published no reference concentration for 2-methoxyethanol in its national survey, so there is no federal number to compare a reading against. EPA notes its own provisional peer-reviewed toxicity assessment holds newer health information than the sheets the survey relied on.
The health goal is set on health alone. The legal limit is set as close to it as is technically and economically feasible, so treatment cost and available technology are written into the number a utility is measured against. A system at or under the limit is meeting the standard it is required to meet. Both numbers are shown so the distance between them is visible.
What removes it
It mixes freely with water and is poorly held by carbon, which makes it difficult to remove at household scale.
Treatment guidance describes the methods generally used for this contaminant. What your own tap actually carries depends on your plumbing and your service line as much as on the utility, which is what a test at the house tells you and an annual report cannot.
Where in Florida
Highest reported levels
Data Sources
These figures describe water as delivered by each utility, not what your home’s plumbing adds after it arrives. Informational; not a substitute for testing your own tap.