Boston, Massachusetts

Water Quality in Boston, Massachusetts

Watershed: Charles River – Frontal Boston Harbor

What is the water quality like in Boston, MA?

Let’s dive deeper into what’s in Boston water.

What’s in Boston water?

Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:

1. Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
2. Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Radium – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 17 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

8 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.

See the What Can You Do? section below for all of the contaminants you can filter out and how to do it.

Where does Boston’s water come from?

Boston’s water comes from the Charles River – Frontal Boston Harbor watershed.

All 16 EPA assessed water sources in the Charles River – Frontal Boston Harbor watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

• Boston Inner Harbor – Impaired
• Brookline Reservoir – Unknown
• Chandler Pond – Impaired
• Charles River (2 segments) – Impaired
• Chestnut Hill Reservoir – Unknown
• Dorchester Bay – Impaired
• Hall’s Pond – Unknown
• Jamaica Pond – Impaired
• Muddy River – Impaired
• Neponset River – Impaired
• Pleasure Bay – Impaired
• Scarboro Golf Course Pond – Impaired
• Stony Brook – Unknown
• Two Unnamed tributaries – Impaired

Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition.

Whether a water source is in Impaired or Good condition refers to the quality of these uses:

1. Drinking Water
2. Aquatic Life
3. Fish and Shellfish Consumption
4. Recreation

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

See below for what you can do to improve Boston’s water.

Conclusion – What Can You Do?

Information about water quality can be surprising.

But there’s no reason to lose hope. There are things you can do in your household as well as things you can do at a community level.

In Your Household:

• Use Berkey filters with activated carbon to filter out 14 of the 17 contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Boston water.
  • Brita can filter 9 contaminants (and Lead depending on the filter).
  • Note: We may receive a commission if you decide to purchase filters through links on this page.
• To filter out 15 of the 17 contaminants, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your house.
  • These are more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but can be more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • Aluminum
    • Barium – In low doses, barium ions act as a muscle stimulant, and higher doses affect the nervous system, causing cardiac irregularities, tremors, weakness, anxiety, shortness of breath, and paralysis.
    • Bromide
    • Bromodichloromethane – health risks in drinking water
    • Chloroform – side effects
    • Dibromochloromethane
    • Dichloroacetic acid
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
    • Monochloroacetic acid
    • Nitrate
    • Radium
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
    • Trichloroacetic acid

*Chlorination is an effective method of disinfecting/treating drinking water. You can then use a water filter to reduce the effects of chlorination byproducts to get the safest, cleanest water possible.

In Your Community:

Contact your local government officials and put pressure on them to invest in cleaner waterways and upgraded city water filtration and treatment.

Go to: https://www.boston.gov/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Massachusetts Cities

Massachusetts Water Quality Page