Does NYC Water Have Chlorine?
Yes, NYC water is treated with chlorine to disinfect it.
Without chlorine treatment, most city water supplies would not be safe for household use.
How Do We Know There’s Chlorine In NYC Water?
At WaterBadge, we study city water supplies to find out what chemicals and contaminants are in them.
For New York City, we’ve found some common chlorine treatment byproducts:
- Haloacetic acids
- Total trihalomethanes
Both of these chemicals show up during the chlorination process and stick around.
Is Chlorine in Water Bad for You?
At high levels, chlorine and its byproducts may pose a risk of cancer.
For example, the legal limit for haloacetic acids is 60 parts per billion.
New York City’s water utility has a concentration of 37.9 parts per billion.
That’s over halfway there. However, it’s important to note that being under the legal limit doesn’t mean it’s safe.
You can view the documentation at the Environmental Working Group.
How Can You Remove Chlorine?
The good news is that there’s a simple solution.
Simply filter your water before you drink it or cook with it.
You can filter out chlorine using Brita filters: faucet or pitcher.
If you want a longer lasting filter that uses less plastic (no plastic taste), take a look at Berkey filters.
- They last 60 times as long: 6000 gallons vs. 100 gallons per Brita filter.
- The container is made out of stainless steel instead of plastic.
- They filter out more contaminants including lead.
Conclusion: Does NYC Water Have Chlorine?
Yes, it does. And it may pose a risk to your health.
However, there’s an easy way to reduce that risk:
Use a water filter before you drink or cook with it.
Want our filter recommendations?
You can access our top water filter picks on the Water Filters page.
Want to Learn More About Water Contaminants?
You can search for any city in the U.S. over 50,000 using the search bar below: