Nashua, New Hampshire

Nashua, New Hampshire Nashua, New Hampshire

Water Quality in Nashua, New Hampshire

Watershed: Unkety Brook – Nashua River

What is the water quality like in Nashua, NH?

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

What’s in Nashua 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. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
  5. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 16 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

10 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 Nashua’s water come from?

Nashua’s water comes from the Unkety Brook – Nashua River watershed.

23 of the 24 EPA assessed water sources in the Unkety Brook – Nashua River watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

  • Bartemus Brook
  • Flints Brook
  • Flints Pond
  • James Brook
  • Lyle Reed Brook
  • Nashua River – 9 segments including Jackson Plant Dam Pond, Mine Falls Dam Pond, and Nashua Canal
  • Reedy Meadow Brook
  • Sucker Brook
  • 6 Unnamed brooks

Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. Unkety Brook is 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 Nashua’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:

*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.nashuanh.gov/836/Waterways to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other New Hampshire Cities

New Hampshire Water Quality Page

Sign In

Register

Reset Password

Please enter your username or email address, you will receive a link to create a new password via email.