Nearly One-Fifth of Americans Are Consuming Water With High Levels of Nitrates

Close to 20 percent of Americans are exposed to water polluted with high levels of potentially cancer-causing nitrates, known to come mostly from agricultural runoff, according to new research published this month.

In a first-ever review of nitrate levels in public water systems across the country, the Environmental Working Group found that 6,114 of them—from heavily agricultural rural areas to major cities, including Los Angeles, Phoenix and Philadelphia—have elevated levels of nitrates, affecting 18 percent of the country’s population, or roughly one in five people, between 2021 and 2023.

“We wanted to get a full national picture,” said Anne Weir Schechinger, the report’s author. “And the sheer size of the numbers—there are over 62 million people impacted by this—I was not expecting that.”