Tap water · TN
Memphis Light, Gas and Water
EPA system ID TN0000450 · serves about 659,500 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 Memphis Light, Gas and Water found in 2025
22 detected analytes from the utility’s own annual report, hand-normalized — nothing was near or over a federal health-based limit.
| Detected | Level | Limit | % of limit | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LEAD (90th percentile) | 4.73 parts per billion | 15 parts per billion | 32% | Within limit |
| CHLORINE | 1.2 parts per million | 4 parts per million | 30% | Within limit |
| COPPER (90th percentile) | 0.34 parts per million | 1.3 parts per million | 26% | Within limit |
| Chlorine | 0.86 parts per million | 4 parts per million | 22% | Within limit |
| FLUORIDE | 0.59 parts per million | 4 parts per million | 15% | Within limit |
| COMBINED RADIUM (226/228) | 0.6 pCi/L | 5 pCi/L | 12% | Within limit |
| TOTAL TRIHALOMETHANES (THMs) | 9.36 parts per billion | 80 parts per billion | 12% | Within limit |
| Total Coliform Bacteria | 0.41 % | 5 % | 8% | Within limit |
| GROSS ALPHA (excluding radon and uranium) | 0.7 pCi/L | 15 pCi/L | 5% | Within limit |
| HALOACETIC ACID (HAA5) | 1.29 parts per billion | 60 parts per billion | 2% | Within limit |
| NITRATE as Nitrogen (N) | 0.1 parts per million | 10 parts per million | 1% | Within limit |
| Temperature (°F) | 66 °F | — | — | No federal limit |
| Alkalinity | 57 ppm | — | — | No federal limit |
| Hardness | 48 ppm | — | — | No federal limit |
| Calcium | 11.4 ppm | — | — | No federal limit |
| SODIUM | 8.9 parts per million | — | — | No federal limit |
| pH (Standard) | 7.3 Standard | — | — | No federal limit |
| Sulfate | 4.8 ppm | — | — | No federal limit |
| Chloride | 4.6 ppm | — | — | No federal limit |
| Hardness (average level detected) | 2.8 grains/gallon | — | — | No federal limit |
| Phosphate | 0.75 ppm | — | — | No federal limit |
| Iron | 0.01 ppm | — | — | 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 Memphis Light, Gas and Water 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Calcium | 11.4 mg/L | Volvic at 11.5 mg/L |
| Sulfate | 4.8 mg/L | Saratoga at 4.7 mg/L |
| Chloride | 4.6 mg/L | Bru at 4 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
38002 · 38016 · 38018 · 38103 · 38104 · 38105 · 38106 · 38107 · 38108 · 38109 · 38111 · 38112 · 38114 · 38115 · 38116 · 38117 · 38118 · 38119 · 38120 · 38122 · 38125 · 38126 · 38127 · 38128 · 38132 · 38141
Boundary zips partially served by other systems are deliberately unlisted — check your exact zip.