Drinking water quality · 2024
· Verified
· PWSID MD0300002
What's in City of Baltimore, MD tap water
1 contaminant in City of Baltimore, MD's water sat at or above a federal limit, led by Radium 226 228 at 3.2x the limit.
- !1 contaminant at or above a federal limit — worst is Radium 226 228 at 3.2x
- !10 of 27 core regulated contaminants reported — 17 never appear in this report
- ✓No open federal violations
+How this score is calculated
Every system starts at 100. Points come off for measured levels, for the federal violation record, and for how much of the core regulated set the utility actually reported. All three inputs are the utility's own published numbers and EPA's own records.
- −32 contaminants at or above a federal limit
- −0 contaminants within 20% of a limit
- −0 open health-based violations
- −0 open monitoring / reporting violations
- −2 health-based violations resolved in the last 5 years
- −14 core regulated contaminants never reported (10/27)
A 90–100 · B 80–89 · C 70–79 · D 60–69 · F below 60. A system reporting under a third of the core set is capped at C however clean its numbers look — a short report is not a clean bill of health.
Full grading methodology, constant for constant →What to worry about
- Radium 226 2283.2× the federal limit0.2–16 pCi/L · limit 5 pCi/L
+16 contaminants were measured and came in below the limitShow all
| Contaminant | Measured | Federal limit |
|---|---|---|
| PFOS | 2.43 ng/L | 4 ng/L |
| PFOA | 2.17 ng/L | 4 ng/L |
| Antimony | 2.87 ug/L | 6 ug/L |
| Chlorine | 1.24 mg/L | 4 mg/L |
| Fluoride | 1.17 mg/L | 4 mg/L |
| Perfluorohexanesulfonic acid | 2.45 ng/L | 10 ng/L |
| Lead | 0.00274 mg/L | 0.015 mg/L |
| Nitrate | 1.7 mg/L | 10 mg/L |
| Copper | 112 ug/L | 1300 ug/L |
| Hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid | 0.25 ng/L | 10 ng/L |
| Barium | 0.0395 mg/L | 2 mg/L |
| Arsenic | Not detected mg/L | 0.01 mg/L |
| Total Coliform | 0.33 % | — |
| Perfluorobutanesulfonic acid | 1.64 ng/L | — |
| Perfluorononanoic acid | Not detected ng/L | 10 ng/L |
| PFPeA | 3 ng/L | — |
What this report doesn't tell you
17 of the 27 contaminants a community water system normally reports do not appear anywhere in City of Baltimore, MD's data. Absent is not the same as absent-from-the-water — it means nobody published a number.
+Full detail: PFAS testing, water source, historical monitoring, and the federal violation record
PFAS — EPA UCMR5 (2023–2025)
1 PFAS compound detected in City of Baltimore, MD
The EPA finalized the first-ever federal drinking-water limits for six PFAS compounds in April 2024. These numbers come straight from EPA's UCMR5 lab dataset — every U.S. system serving more than 3,300 people tested every PFAS sample at an entry point to its distribution system. PFAS not listed below were either tested and not detected, or not yet sampled.
PFPeA
● Detected (no federal limit)Where your water comes from · EPA SDWIS
City of Baltimore, MD's drinking water comes from surface water, drawn from 3 sources.
Source
- LIBERTY RESERVOIR
- LOCH RAVEN
- SUSQUEHANNA
Treatment
- ASHBURTON FILTER PLANT
- MONTEBELLO FILTER PLANT 1 + 2
Distribution
Compliance history
Federal Safe Drinking Water Act violation & enforcement records (EPA SDWIS). A violation is a regulatory determination by the state or EPA — separate from the measured levels above.
- Maximum contaminant level exceededHealth-based4 violations on record · most recent Sep 2022resolved
- Treatment technique violationHealth-based2 violations on record · most recent Apr 2009resolved
Source: EPA SDWIS / ECHO. View the full federal record on EPA ECHO ↗