High nitrite in Falls Church tapwater

[kcb203]

I just set up a fish tank after a long absence from the hobby. I tested the nitrite (NO2) level in my Falls Church tap water at 2 ppm. Nitrates are also high--about 20 ppm. The 2010 water quality report indicates that they've historically been at 0-.09 NO2 and .6-2.6 NO3. These units are in nitrite nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen concentration, respectively, so multiplying by 3.3 and 4.4 gives 0-.297 NO2 ppm and 2.64-11.44 NO3 ppm.

I e-mailed the Falls Church Water authority. Has anyone else seen anything similar? I think all our water comes from the Potomac. I expected high NO3, but the high NO2 is very worrisome (for my family as well as my fish).

Thanks.

 

[kcb203]

One more thing--I tested some distilled water and it came out at 0 for both nitrite and nitrate, so it's not the test kits.