Southwood

Water Quality Snapshot: Southwood

Southwood is a private-owned community water system that delivers drinking water to 64,155 residents in Tacoma, Washington (Pierce County) through 16,534 service connections. Its water is drawn from surface water sources. EPA's Safe Drinking Water Information System records 379 total violations for this system , of which 3 (1%) are health-based, meaning a contaminant exceeded an EPA Maximum Contaminant Level or a required treatment technique failed. A further 367 monitoring and reporting violations are on file. The most recent violation on record dates to 2022.

The most frequently cited contaminant at this system is Nitrate, recorded in 30 violations (MR). Under EPA's UCMR5 PFAS monitoring program, 6 PFAS compounds were detected in samples collected from this system, with a maximum reported concentration of 110 ppt (parts per trillion). PFAS are persistent synthetic chemicals linked to health effects at very low exposure levels.

Across Washington, EPA tracks 4,557 public water systems serving 9,736,844 people, with 314,648 cumulative violations and 20,590 health-based violations on record. About 92% of systems in the state carry at least one violation, and state-wide the average per system is 69 violations. Statewide, 98 of 247 UCMR5-tested systems have reported PFAS detections (39.7%).

Southwood's 379 violations sit above the Washington average.

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