City of Baltimore

Water Quality Snapshot: City of Baltimore

City of Baltimore is a local-owned community water system that delivers drinking water to 1,600,000 residents in Baltimore, Maryland (Baltimore city County) through 424,600 service connections. Its water is drawn from surface water sources. EPA's Safe Drinking Water Information System records 73 total violations for this system , of which 20 (27%) are health-based, meaning a contaminant exceeded an EPA Maximum Contaminant Level or a required treatment technique failed. A further 43 monitoring and reporting violations are on file. The most recent violation on record dates to 2023.

The most frequently cited contaminant at this system is Total Haloacetic Acids (HAA5), recorded in 9 violations (MCL, health-based). Under EPA's UCMR5 PFAS monitoring program, 1 PFAS compound was detected in samples collected from this system, with a maximum reported concentration of 3 ppt (parts per trillion). PFAS are persistent synthetic chemicals linked to health effects at very low exposure levels.

Across Maryland, EPA tracks 3,215 public water systems serving 6,070,211 people, with 60,496 cumulative violations and 18,132 health-based violations on record. About 80% of systems in the state carry at least one violation, and state-wide the average per system is 18.8 violations. Statewide, 50 of 83 UCMR5-tested systems have reported PFAS detections (60.2%).

City of Baltimore's 73 violations sit above the Maryland average.

All figures above are sourced directly from EPA SDWIS and UCMR5 public data releases and are updated as EPA publishes new reporting cycles.