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Chlorine Byproducts: What's in Tampa Bay Tap Water

Every utility that disinfects with chlorine creates a small amount of these compounds as a side effect. Here's what they are, what your own utility reports, and why that number isn't the same as a reading from your kitchen tap.

Haloacetic acids (HAA5) Trihalomethanes (TTHMs) Tampa · Pinellas County · St. Petersburg
What these actually are

A side effect of disinfection, not a contamination event.

Chlorine keeps tap water safe from bacteria. When it reacts with naturally occurring organic matter — leaves, soil, decaying plant material — already present in the source water, it also forms a small family of compounds as a byproduct. Two groups are regulated.

HAA5

Haloacetic acids

Five related compounds, measured together. They form in the same chlorine-plus-organic-matter reaction and tend to build up the longer water sits in the distribution system before it reaches a tap.

TTHMs

Total trihalomethanes

A related family of four byproducts, also measured together. The EPA regulates both groups because long-term exposure at elevated levels is linked to increased cancer risk — which is also why both limits sit well below the concentration where any immediate effect would occur.

What your utility reports

Three Tampa Bay utilities, one public data source.

These are system-wide annual averages each utility reports, as compiled by the Environmental Working Group's Tap Water Database. They're a useful starting point — and worth reading alongside the note below.

Haloacetic acids HAA5 · ppb
Reported range14.5 – 25.9 ppb
Utility average
Legal limit: 60 ppb
Tampa, Pinellas County, and St. Petersburg each report under the EPA's 60 ppb legal limit. An independent health-guideline benchmark used by EWG sits much lower, at 0.1 ppb — reflecting newer cancer-risk research the federal limit hasn't been revised to match since 2006.
Trihalomethanes TTHMs · ppb
Reported range14.6 – 41.6 ppb
Utility average
Legal limit: 80 ppb
All three utilities report under the EPA's 80 ppb legal limit. EWG's health guideline for TTHMs is 0.15 ppb — the same older-federal-number, newer-science gap as HAA5 above.
Source: EWG Tap Water Database, 2021–2023 reporting years · City of Tampa, Pinellas County Utilities, City of St. Petersburg
Why your own result can differ

What comes out of your faucet is the only sample that matters — and disinfection byproducts specifically climb the longer water sits in the pipes between the treatment plant and your tap.

Does Bluepoint test for this?

Not part of the Basic panel today — here's the honest scope.

What's included now

The Basic package tests the 8 most common tap water issues on-site, with results before I leave: pH, conductivity, TDS, chlorine, hardness, fluoride, copper, and iron. HAA5 and TTHMs require a lab method, not a field kit, so they aren't part of that same-visit panel.

If you want these specifically tested

Both are available as add-on tests, collected during a Bluepoint visit and sent to an outside lab for analysis:

Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) — $120
Total Trihalomethanes (TTHMs) — $85

Each is priced on its own, with no package required. Reach out and I'll walk you through what the utility numbers above mean for your specific address — honestly, no pressure either way.

A few more questions
Is my water safe to drink right now?+

Yes, by the EPA's own legal limits — every utility above reports under them. The health-guideline comparison exists because that legal limit is decades old and set conservatively for lifetime exposure, not because today's number is an emergency. It's useful context, not a reason to panic.

Does boiling or filtering remove these?+

Boiling can actually concentrate some trihalomethanes rather than remove them. Activated carbon filtration (a standard pitcher or under-sink filter) is the commonly cited approach — but we don't sell filters, so that's a decision to make with product research of your own, not a pitch from us.

Why does this page use ranges instead of my exact number?+

Because a utility-wide average isn't your number. It's the right starting point for understanding the regional picture — and exactly why on-site, same-visit testing of your own tap matters for anything this panel does cover.

Start with what we can test today.

Book a Basic visit for the 8 most common issues, results before I leave — or ask a question first.

Book a visit · from $129 Email a question