St Helens, City Of

Water Quality Snapshot: St Helens, City Of

St Helens, City Of is a local-owned community water system that delivers drinking water to 13,410 residents in St Helens, Oregon (Columbia County) through 5,500 service connections. Its water is drawn from surface water sources. EPA's Safe Drinking Water Information System records 69 total violations for this system , of which 11 (16%) are health-based, meaning a contaminant exceeded an EPA Maximum Contaminant Level or a required treatment technique failed. A further 55 monitoring and reporting violations are on file. The most recent violation on record dates to 2023.

The most frequently cited contaminant at this system is Surface Water Treatment Rule, recorded in 11 violations (TT, health-based). Under EPA's UCMR5 PFAS monitoring program, 1 PFAS compound was detected in samples collected from this system, with a maximum reported concentration of 15.5 ppt (parts per trillion). PFAS are persistent synthetic chemicals linked to health effects at very low exposure levels.

Across Oregon, EPA tracks 2,518 public water systems serving 4,005,242 people, with 206,659 cumulative violations and 20,339 health-based violations on record. About 99% of systems in the state carry at least one violation, and state-wide the average per system is 82.1 violations. Statewide, 30 of 125 UCMR5-tested systems have reported PFAS detections (24%).

St Helens, City Of's 69 violations sit below the Oregon average.

All figures above are sourced directly from EPA SDWIS and UCMR5 public data releases and are updated as EPA publishes new reporting cycles.