SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4) — The Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities responded to a recent water study claiming that Salt Lake City’s drinking water was not as healthy as other U.S. cities.

A study conducted by WaterFilterGuru ranked Salt Lake City as having a high percentage of contaminants, such as chloroform and bromodichloromethane, however, officials with SLC Public Utilities disagreed with that analysis.

“Our water quality, and our water, meets and exceeds all of the state and federal standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act,” Laura Briefer, SLC Dept. of Public Utilities Director said.

The SLC Public Utilities puts out water quality reports each year which include contaminant levels, where the contaminants come from, and federal regulation standards for each of the Salt Lake area water sources.

Based on that report, the average level of Chlorine in 2023 (which is used to purify the water) was between .01 and 1.03 parts per million. The federal recommendation for drinking water is 4 parts per million or less.

The report is categorized into several different types of contaminants. Primary contaminants are contaminants that are going to impact public health, the secondary contaminants are usually things that are going to deal with taste or smell, and then Salt Lake City has unregulated contaminants that they voluntarily sample to keep an eye on.

Teresa Gray, Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities Water Quality and Treatment Administrator, said that drinking water is expected to contain some contaminants and that it may not be a bad thing.

“When we say contaminant, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a public health impact or something that makes the water dirty,” Gray said. “It has all of these different compounds, most of which are naturally occurring in our water supply.”

SLC Public Utilities also said they have never had contaminants at higher levels than the government-regulated levels. Briefer said that is a testament to the high-quality water offered in Salt Lake City.

To view the 2023 Water Quality Report for SLC and surrounding areas, you can visit their website here.