Vanadium
Overview
Vanadium is a metal that erodes into groundwater from natural deposits and also enters water from industrial use. EPA classes it as a metal and monitored it nationwide in 2013 to 2015. There is no federal limit.
In Florida, Vanadium was found in 184 community water systems serving about 17,437,313 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: Erosion of natural deposits; industrial discharge.
The standards
Enforceable. A utility must stay at or under this.
Health-based, not enforceable. Often lower than the limit, sometimes zero.
EPA Reference Concentration (UCMR 3), Contaminant Information Sheets for the Final CCL 4. EPA sets this on intermediate exposure. It is not a legal limit and no utility is required to meet it.
Health effects the EPA associates with it: EPA's reference concentration of 21 ppb is set on intermediate-duration non-cancer effects. EPA's figure derives from an ATSDR minimal risk level for minor kidney effects in animal studies.
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 is the household method that removes it. Anion exchange also works on the forms vanadium usually takes in water.
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 184 systems that reported Vanadium.
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.