Is Boston Tap Water Good?
Boston water quality ranks in the low to mid range for contaminants.
- Rochester Hills, Michigan has 5.
- For reference, Miramar, Florida has 75 contaminants. (The most of any U.S. city over 50,000.)
- Note: These are both outliers.
With a total of 17 contaminants in your drinking water, 8 of those exceed health guidelines.
Drinking unfiltered water from Boston water sources could be hazardous to your health.
Let’s look closer at Boston water quality.
Boston Water Contamination
Boston has a total of 17 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
8 of these 17 contaminants are rated as exceeding health guidelines.
They include things like Chloroform and Radium.
Most of the contaminants pose a risk of Cancer if allowed to stay in your drinking water.
Lead in Boston Water
Boston drinking water has high levels of lead in it.
90 percent of samples taken from Boston water sources had a lead concentration of 12.7 parts per billion (ppb) or less.
This is a high level of lead contamination when compared to other cities.
Here is a way to rank Boston’s lead levels:
Lead concentrations of 3.9 ppb to 15 ppb “put a formula-fed baby at risk of elevated blood lead levels.” (ewg.org)
Here are a few of the lead poisoning symptoms for children under 6:
- Abdominal Pain
- Developmental Delay
- Learning Difficulties
- Fatigue
- Weight loss
- Irritability
- Hearing loss
There is no safe level of lead for humans.
So, What Can You Do?
Information about water quality can be surprising.
There are things you can do today to keep you and your family safe and healthy.
In Your Household:
Use Berkey water filters with activated carbon to filter out 14 of the 17 contaminants, or 82.4 percent, in your drinking water.
(They also remove 99% of lead contamination in Boston water.)
Brita and PUR pitchers only manage 53% or 9 out of 17.
Save money on new and replacement filters when you use the links at waterbadge.com/filters.
Boston Whole House Water Filtration Systems
A whole house filtration system will filter out 15 of the 17 contaminants, or 88.2 percent, making it another effective choice.
A few things to note:
- Whole house systems are much more effective than water pitchers like Brita and PUR.
- However, the initial cost is higher and they require installation.
For a list of the contaminants that can be filtered out by a whole house system, go to Boston’s Water Quality page.
To filter out the highest number of contaminants, use our recommendations on the WaterBadge Filters page:
Conclusion: Is Boston Tap Water Good?
Not without a filter.
This small extra step can save you and your loved ones from health problems later.
You deserve to feel safe when you drink your own tap water.
At WaterBadge, our goal is to make that a reality.
To support this mission, we’ve partnered with companies that are dedicated to water filtration and safety.
When you purchase filters and systems through them, you’re also supporting WaterBadge’s mission of cleaner water for everyone.
Thanks for doing your part.
Want to learn more about water quality around the U.S.?
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