Local water facts · Virginia
Western Virginia Water Authority (Roanoke) serves 182,700 people from Carvins Cove + Spring Hollow reservoirs. The numbers below are from the utility’s own published testing, compiled by the EWG Tap Water Database (June 2026). The water is legal. The question is how it compares to health guidelines, which sit well below the legal limits.
Each card shows how far a contaminant sits above its health guideline, the level scientists consider protective over a lifetime of drinking. A system can pass every legal test and still carry these levels.
32.3 ppb found · health guideline 0.06 ppb
Cancer-linked Read the research on Haloacetic acids (HAA9) →24.1 ppb found · health guideline 0.1 ppb · legal limit 60 ppb
Cancer-linked Read the research on Haloacetic acids (HAA5) →34.9 ppb found · health guideline 0.15 ppb · legal limit 80 ppb
Cancer-linked Read the research on Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) →13.2 ppb found · health guideline 0.1 ppb
Cancer-linked Read the research on Trichloroacetic acid →30.4 ppb found · health guideline 0.4 ppb
Cancer-linked Read the research on Chloroform →4.07 ppb found · health guideline 0.06 ppb
Cancer-linked Read the research on Bromodichloromethane →0.207 ppb found · health guideline 0.004 ppb · legal limit 10 ppb
Cancer-linked10.4 ppb found · health guideline 0.2 ppb
Cancer-linked Read the research on Dichloroacetic acid →0.2 ppb found · health guideline 0.02 ppb
Cancer-linked Read the research on Chromium (hexavalent) →0.4 pCi/L found · health guideline 0.05 pCi/L · legal limit 5 pCi/L
Cancer-linked0.374 ppb found · health guideline 0.1 ppb
Cancer-linked Read the research on Dibromochloromethane →0.41 ppm found · health guideline 0.14 ppm · legal limit 10 ppm
Cancer · birth defects Read the research on Nitrate and nitrite →0.792 ppt found · health guideline 0.3 ppt · legal limit 4 ppt
Immune & developmental harm Read the research on Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) →0.234 ppt found · health guideline 0.09 ppt · legal limit 4 ppt
Cancer-linked Read the research on Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) →Each bar starts at the health guideline and runs on a log scale. The faint ticks mark 10× and 100× over, and the dark notch is the legal limit where one exists.
Health-effect labels and guideline levels above come from the EWG Tap Water Database (June 2026), advisory benchmarks set by EWG’s researchers (methodology), not legal standards. The utility’s water meets federal legal limits.
Think per glass: at 538× the guideline, one glass of tap water carries what 538 glasses would hold at the health-guideline level. The top flag here is Haloacetic acids (HAA9). Not an emergency, but worth knowing, because the fix is specific and usually simpler than people expect.
ZIP codes served by Western Virginia Water Authority (Roanoke) include 24011, 24012, 24013, 24014, 24015, 24016, 24017, 24018, 24019, 24020, 24022, 24025, 24026, 24027 and 14 more. Get your free water report for your own ZIP: every flag scored, and which fix covers which one.
New to these reports? How to read a water report in 2 minutes.
Every system we track, plotted by Water Score, 0 to 100, higher is safer.
Western Virginia Water Authority (Roanoke) scores 16/100, ranking #33 of 58 tracked systems.
No single filter does everything. Each option covers different flags, so the right answer depends on what’s in your water and how your house is set up. You’re weighing options, not grades of good.
Good on chlorine taste and some disinfection byproducts. Cartridges fade fast, about every 2 months.
The drinking-water workhorse: handles PFAS, nitrate, arsenic and most of the hard flags, at one tap. How Reverse Osmosis (RO) installation works →
Treats every tap and protects pipes and appliances, usually paired with Reverse Osmosis (RO) for the kitchen. What a softener fixes (and can’t) →
The full breakdown of what each option does and can’t do: the 60-second version · all the free guides.
Type your ZIP and get the full picture, free: every flag, what it means per glass, and which fix covers it.
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