Tap water · MD
Baltimore City Department of Public Works
EPA system ID MD0300002 · serves about 1,600,000 people. Every US utility must publish an annual water quality report — here’s the official one (2025), and below it, our plain-English translation.
Read the official report →What Baltimore City Department of Public Works found in 2025
17 detected analytes from the utility’s own annual report, hand-normalized — 2 were near or over a limit (flagged below).
| Detected | Level | Limit | % of limit | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total THMs | 77 ppb | 80 ppb | 96% | Near limit |
| PFOS | 3.3 ppt | 4 ppt | 83% | Near limit |
| HAA | 46 ppb | 60 ppb | 77% | Within limit |
| PFOA | 2.9 ppt | 4 ppt | 73% | Within limit |
| Nitrate | 5.81 ppm | 10 ppm | 58% | Within limit |
| Combined Radium 226/228 | 1.6 pCi/L | 5 pCi/L | 32% | Within limit |
| Chlorine | 1.2 ppm | 4 ppm | 30% | Within limit |
| Fluoride | 1.09 ppm | 4 ppm | 27% | Within limit |
| Total Coliform (for systems that collect ≥ 40 samples/month) | 1.31 % | 5 % | 26% | Within limit |
| Lead (90th percentile) | 2.74 ppb | 15 ppb | 18% | Within limit |
| CHLORINE | 0.52 ppm | 4 ppm | 13% | Within limit |
| Copper (90th percentile) | 112 ppb | 1,300 ppb | 9% | Within limit |
| Barium | 0.041 ppm | 2 ppm | 2% | Within limit |
| PFBS + PFHxS +PFNA +HFPO-DA | 0.003 HI | 1 HI | 0% | Within limit |
| Sodium | 20.9 ppm | — | — | No federal limit |
| PFHxA | 2.9 ppt | — | — | No federal limit |
| PFBS | 2.2 ppt | — | — | No federal limit |
Levels and limits are as printed in the utility’s report (“limit” is the EPA MCL, action level, residual limit, or secondary guideline that applies to that row; “ND” = not detected). Utilities publish these reports annually — we re-check every covered utility each July, after the federal publication deadline. Detected doesn’t mean dangerous — most detections sit far below their limits. This is education, not medical advice.
Your tap, if it were a bottle
How Baltimore City Department of Public Works water stacks up against the bottled aisle
Same minerals, same units — the tap values below come from the utility’s report, placed next to the closest match in our bottled-water database.
| Mineral | Your tap | Closest bottled match |
|---|---|---|
| Sodium | 20.9 mg/L | Ty Nant at 22 mg/L |
Tap values are the headline levels from the utility’s annual report (often a highest or average figure); bottled values are label- or report-derived. A closest match is a numeric comparison, not an equivalence or an endorsement.
Zip codes covered
21201 · 21202 · 21205 · 21211 · 21213 · 21214 · 21216 · 21217 · 21218 · 21223 · 21230 · 21231
Boundary zips partially served by other systems are deliberately unlisted — check your exact zip.