Weymouth, Massachusetts

What is the Water Quality in Weymouth, Massachusetts?

[Updated: June 9, 2023]

Compared to other US cities, Weymouth water quality ranks in the middle range for contamination excluding Lead.

Most of their 22 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.

• Chloroform is at extremely high levels: 46x health guidelines.
• Haloacetic acids (HAA5) are at extremely high levels: 114x health guidelines.
• Haloacetic acids (HAA9) are at extremely high levels: 295x health guidelines.
  • HAA5 and HAA9 are byproducts of chlorine treatment, a common method of disinfecting water supplies.

Let’s look closer at what’s in Weymouth water.

What’s in Weymouth 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. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 22 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

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

Does Weymouth have Lead contamination?

Yes, Weymouth has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2015 through 2017 showed concentrations up to 1.0 parts per billion (ppb).

The legal limit for lead is 15 parts per billion. Being well-below this level is a good thing.

• Concentrations between 3.8 ppb and 15 ppb put a formula-fed baby at risk of elevated blood lead levels. Read more about the symptoms of Lead in water.

There is no safe level of lead for humans.

• The good news is that 99.99% of the lead can be filtered out.

See the What Can You Do? section below to learn how to filter out contaminants.

Where does Weymouth’s water come from?

Weymouth’s water comes from the North River – Frontal Massachusetts Bay.

18 of the 19 water sources in the North River – Frontal Massachusetts Bay watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

• Boston Harbor
• Cochato River
• Cranberry Brook
• Farm River
• Furnace Brook
• Hingham Bay
• Lake Holbrook
• Mary Lee Brook
• Monatiquot River
• Quincy Bay
• Sunset Lake
• Sylvan Lake
• Town Brook
• Town River Bay
• Weymouth Fore River

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

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

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

Conclusion – What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Weymouth can be surprising and downright scary.

But there are things you can do in your home to clean up your water.

To Remove Lead and Other Contaminants In Your Home:

• Use Activated Carbon filters to remove most contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Faucet-mount filters work better than pitchers.
  • PUR and Brita are low-cost and effective.

• To filter out even more contaminants, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your house.
  • These are typically more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but are much more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • Aluminum
    • Barium
    • Chloroform
    • Chromium (hexavalent)
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids (HAA5)
    • Haloacetic acids (HAA9)
    • Nitrate
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs)
  • Our recommendation: APEC Reverse Osmosis Systems

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.weymouth.ma.us/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Massachusetts Cities

Massachusetts Water Quality Page