How to Check Your City’s Water Quality (And What to Look For)

Public water systems in the United States are required by law to test their water and publish the results once a year. The document is called a Consumer Confidence Report, and it lists exactly what was detected in your tap water, in what amounts, and how those levels compare to federal limits. Most people have never seen it, but it is a matter of public record — and it usually takes less than five minutes to find once you know where to look. This guide walks through how to find yours, qnd the five things actually worth checking, especially if you have noticed changes in your hair or skin.

Your Utility Publishes Its Chemistry Every Year, and Here's Where to Find It

Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, every community water system in the United States must publish an annual Consumer Confidence Report, delivered or made available to customers by July 1 each year. It covers the previous year's testing data, and it applies to systems of every size. There are three easy ways to get yours. The most direct is to search your city or utility name along with "water quality report," which usually leads to a page under "Water Quality" or "Annual Reports." If that does not turn it up, the EPA hosts a searchable database at epa.gov/ccr, organized by state and utility. The simplest option of all is the EWG Tap Water Database at ewg.org/tapwater, where you enter your zip code and get the same data in plainer language, which makes it the best place to start. If your water comes from a private well, no report exists and you will need to test the water yourself, but the parameters below are just as worth knowing.

One thing to understand before you read: the report describes the water as it leaves the treatment plant and enters the system, not necessarily what comes out of your particular tap, which household plumbing can change. It lists each regulated contaminant next to two numbers. The Maximum Contaminant Level is the legal limit, and the Maximum Contaminant Level Goal is the level the EPA considers to carry no known risk. Those two are not always the same, and the gap between them is part of reading the report intelligently: a result can be perfectly legal and still be above the level of zero known risk. The rest of this guide is how to read water quality report data one line at a time.

Step 1: Find Your Disinfectant Type, Chlorine or Chloramine

The single most useful line to find is also the one most guides skip: which disinfectant your utility uses. It will be either free chlorine, listed as chlorine or Cl₂, or chloramine, listed as chloramine, combined chlorine, or NH₂Cl. Look under a heading like "Disinfectants" or "Disinfection Byproducts," where it appears with its yearly average and the maximum residual disinfectant level, which the EPA sets at 4 mg/L for both.

The reason this matters is practical. The two behave differently and call for different filtration. Free chlorine dissipates fairly quickly and is removed well by calcium sulfite and ordinary activated carbon. Chloramine is more stable, lingers longer on skin and in shower steam, and needs catalytic carbon to remove it effectively. So a chloramine system on your report is a meaningful signal. It tells you which filter media you actually need, and it means the disinfectant chemistry described in our guides to shower-related rashes and hair damage from chlorine applies to you with particular force.

Step 2: Look for Water Hardness, and What to Do If It Isn't Listed

Hardness is worth checking, but here is the catch: it is not a regulated contaminant, because calcium and magnesium are not toxic, so the EPA does not require it in the report and many utilities leave it out even though they measure it. If yours includes it, you will see "total hardness," "calcium hardness," or "hardness as CaCO₃" in milligrams per liter. Divide that by 17.1 to get grains per gallon. By the U.S. Geological Survey scale, under 60 mg/L is soft, 61 to 120 is moderately hard, 121 to 180 is hard, and above 180 is very hard.

If hardness is not listed, you have three simple options. Call or email the utility and ask, since they measure it and are usually happy to share the number. Check the EWG Tap Water Database, which lists it for some systems. Or run your own water quality test with an inexpensive hard water strip, which gives a same-day reading accurate enough to place you in the right range. Once you have your number, our guide to the signs of hard water helps you connect it to the effects you may already be noticing on your hair, skin, and fixtures.

Step 3: Read the Lead Number, and Know Its One Big Limitation

Lead is reported differently from most parameters. Instead of a simple average, the report lists the 90th percentile result, meaning the level that 90% of tested homes came in at or below. The EPA action level is currently 15 parts per billion, and if the 90th percentile exceeds it, the utility must take corrective steps and notify the public. The goal for lead is zero, because there is no known safe amount. Under the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements finalized in late 2024, that action level drops to 10 parts per billion and utilities must identify and replace lead service lines, with the core requirements taking effect in 2027.

The limitation is important: this is a system-level number, not a reading from your tap. If your home was built before 1986, or has lead service lines, brass fixtures, or copper pipes joined with lead solder, your own water can carry more lead than the system average suggests. This is the clearest case where the report is a starting point rather than the full picture. If any of that describes your home, a certified laboratory water quality test on your own tap, not a quick strip, gives the accurate reading, and the EPA's lead page lists certified labs by state. For point-of-use reduction at the shower, independent SGS testing of our filter measured 99.5% lead reduction at a 6 L/min flow rate.

Step 4: Trihalomethanes and Haloacetic Acids, the Disinfection Byproducts

Every disinfected system produces some disinfection byproducts, so these two lines appear in nearly every report. Total trihalomethanes, or TTHMs, have a legal limit of 80 parts per billion; haloacetic acids, or HAA5s, are capped at 60. They form when the disinfectant reacts with natural organic matter, like decaying leaves and plant material in the source water. They are a normal consequence of disinfection rather than a contamination event, which is why they show up almost everywhere at some level.

Check both the yearly average and the range, because a system can average safely below the limit while running higher in summer and fall, when organic matter in the water peaks. This one matters in the shower more than most people realize. Research measuring these compounds has found that showering delivers a meaningful share of a person's total exposure, comparable to or greater than drinking the same water (Chowdhury & Champagne, 2009; Chowdhury, 2013). Hot water in an enclosed space does two things at once: it drives the compounds through the skin and releases them into the air you breathe. Activated carbon fiber in a shower filter adsorbs these dissolved compounds at the point of use, lowering the amount that reaches your skin and lungs. Our guide to what's really in your shower water covers this pathway in full.

Step 5: PFAS, the Newest Line on the Report

PFAS, the "forever chemicals," are a family of synthetic compounds that break down extremely slowly and build up in the body, and they are the newest entry in drinking water regulation. In April 2024, the EPA set the first federal limits for them, including 4.0 parts per trillion each for PFOA and PFOS. Since then the agency has moved to give utilities until 2031 to comply and to reconsider the limits it set for several other PFAS, so this part of the rulebook is still settling as of 2026. In practice, that means many utilities are in their first rounds of PFAS testing now, and results appear in the report once testing is complete. Systems in areas with known contamination, near industrial sites or military bases, may already show data. The EWG Tap Water Database is a useful place to check for PFAS results your report may not yet include.

On filtration, the honest position is a narrow one. Activated carbon is the most widely studied media for reducing PFAS at the point of use, and our filter uses an activated carbon fiber stage, so the mechanism is a real one. But we do not yet have certified lab results for PFAS specifically, so we make no removal claim for it; that testing is in progress and the data will be published when it is complete.

What to Do When Your Report Raises Questions

Once you have your numbers, the useful question is which of these pathways applies to your water, because that determines what, if anything, is worth doing. High hardness, above 120 mg/L, means mineral deposits are building on your hair and skin with every wash. A chloramine system means the disinfectant that is hardest to remove, and most relevant to sensitive skin, is the one in your pipes. Elevated trihalomethanes, even below the legal limit, mean the shower is delivering a real dose through skin and steam. Elevated lead, or simply an older home the system average won't capture, means point-of-use reduction is worth adding.

The shower is a specific and often overlooked exposure point in all of these, because heat drives absorption through the skin and releases compounds into the air in a small, closed room. This is where a shower filter earns its place: The Revitalize Shower Filtration System pairs calcium sulfite and catalytic carbon to remove free chlorine and chloramine with a polyphosphate stage that keeps hardness minerals from depositing on hair and skin, and SGS testing verified 99.4% free chlorine, 99.6% chloramine, and 99.5% lead reduction at 6 L/min. It is not a whole-house system, and it does not soften your water; if your hardness number also has you thinking about laundry and appliances, our guide to water softeners versus shower filters covers where each one fits, and our honest look at whether shower filters actually work walks through the verified performance data. The point of reading your report is not to alarm you, but to trade a vague worry for a specific, accurate picture of your tap water quality, and then to match the response to what your water actually contains.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I check my city's water quality?

Read your utility's annual Consumer Confidence Report, which every U.S. public water system must publish by July 1. Find it by searching your city name plus "water quality report," through the EPA's database at epa.gov/ccr, or via the EWG Tap Water Database by zip code. Then check the disinfectant type, hardness, lead, and disinfection byproducts.

How do I find my water quality report?

There are three easy routes. Search your city or utility name with "water quality report," which usually turns up a page under "Water Quality" or "Annual Reports." Use the EPA's searchable database at epa.gov/ccr. Or enter your zip code in the EWG Tap Water Database for a plain-language version of the same data.

Is my tap water safe to drink?

In most U.S. systems, tap water meets federal safety limits, but "is my tap water safe" is not a simple yes or no. A contaminant can be present and legal yet still above the level of zero known risk, and older home plumbing can add lead the report won't show. Reading your report tells you what is actually there.

What should I look for in a water quality report?

Five things matter most: the disinfectant type (chlorine or chloramine), water hardness, the lead 90th-percentile level, trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids, and PFAS. For each, compare the detected level to its legal limit and note the range, not just the average, since some levels rise seasonally.

References

Chowdhury, S. (2013). Exposure assessment for trihalomethanes in municipal drinking water and risk reduction strategy. Science of the Total Environment, 463–464, 922–930. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23872246/

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2024). Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI). https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/lead-and-copper-rule-improvements

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.). Consumer Confidence Reports (CCR). https://www.epa.gov/ccr

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.). Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). https://www.epa.gov/sdwa/and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances-pfas

U.S. Geological Survey. (n.d.). Hardness of water. https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/hardness-water

Chowdhury, S., & Champagne, P. (2009). Risk from exposure to trihalomethanes during shower: Probabilistic assessment and control. Science of the Total Environment, 407(5), 1570–1578. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19131092/