Cyanide
Overview
Cyanide can enter water from industrial discharge such as steel, plastics, and fertilizer manufacturing.
In Florida, Cyanide was found in 40 community water systems serving about 154,985 people. 1 of those readings was above the federal legal limit, together serving 469 people. It was measured by 1,559 systems in all, so it was detected in 3% of the systems that tested for it.
The highest reading relative to the limit was at Lakemont Ridge Home & RV Park in Polk County, at 105% of it.
Where it comes from: Discharge from steel/metal factories; discharge from plastic and fertilizer factories.
The standards
Enforceable. A utility must stay at or under this.
Health-based, not enforceable. Often lower than the limit, sometimes zero.
California OEHHA PHG (1997).
Health effects the EPA associates with it: Nerve damage. Thyroid problems.
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
Reverse osmosis. Cyanide in drinking water is unusual and points to a specific industrial source worth identifying.
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
Showing the 25 highest of 40 systems that reported Cyanide.
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.