Top 8 Harmful Contaminants in New York Tap Water

Black Friday 2025 is just around the corner, and it appears that it's going to be the largest shopping occasion of the year. Whether you’re ready to upgrade your home by providing it with clean water that's healthier and tastes better, your chance has finally arrived. The Waterdrop Black Friday 2025 Sale offers historically low prices and free gifts. New York City tap water has a legendary reputation. Its Mayor Eric Adams termed it as " the env Amer of the whole world ".

It depends upon pure, protected source water that comes from upstate Catskill/Delaware reservoirs, the DEP conducts consistant water testing, making sure that it meets all of its needed drinking standards.

If you wait for just minimal compliance with basic regulations, you will likely still come in contact with contaminants that carry a long-term risk to your body. These contaminants consists of minute doses of industrial chemicals, disinfection byproducts, as well as aged infrastructure issues that a city’s upstate source water quality will not address by itself.

Getting to know these blind menaces is your first step towards having your family’s purest water. Here are top 8 major contaminants that need every New Yorker’s attention:

Waterdrop is committed to providing New York families with high-quality, safe, and clean drinking water. We regularly test and assess New York City’s tap water and collaborate with the Environmental Working Group (EWG) to keep you updated on local contaminant levels. Simply enter your ZIP code to discover specific pollutants , their potential impacts, and the best ways to protect you and your family.

Lead is a serious neurotoxin, most toxic to children. Lead gets into your tap water principally via older lead service lines between pre-1961 homes and street mains, and via indoor household plumbing containing lead.

New York City struggles with this energetically. The DEP treats water with food-grade phosphoric acid just to create a barrier, which causes fewer metals such as lead to come out of the older pipes. They also started programs to swap out lead service lines in at-risk neighborhoods.

Health Risks:

• Lead exposure at any level in early childhood may cause irreversible impairment of mental development, stunted physical development, and aggravated behavior issues.
• In adults, exposure may result in kidney disease and hypertension. Inorganic lead has been designated a known human carcinogen.

PFAS, or Perfluoroalkyl and Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances, are manmade chemicals that are widely referred to as "forever chemicals" since they scarcely degrade in the environment.

They are odorless but clear chemicals that originated from industrial uses, such as high-tech coatings as well as non-sticking cookware. They are regarded as contaminants of emerging concern (CEC) in watersheds.

Health Risks:

• PFAS exposure has been linked with a variety of severe illnesses, such as a heightened rate of kidney, testicular, and liver cancer.
• They will result in high cholesterol, thyroid disease, as well as a slow immune system.
• They are of concern for special populations -- pregnant females and children -- who may develop low-birth-weight babies or a slow vaccine response.

Nitrates and nitrites are natural cycle compounds of nitrogen, occurring in water and earth. But high concentrations almost always indicate direct human intervention, i.e., agricultural runoff (manures and fertilizers) or loose sewage and septicage.

Health Risks:

If nitrites get too high, they produce methemoglobinemia, more loosely referred to as "blue-baby syndrome". This is very dangerous for children under six months.

As it seriously decreases withered its power to transport oxygen in this molecule, making serious disease or death inevitable if it's not treated.

Besides that, nitrites may combine with other chemicals given suitable conditions existing in acidic stomach content, forming nitrosamines that are likely to raise your risk of selected cancers.

TTHMs are among a class of hazardous chemicals called Disinfection Byproducts (DBPs).

They are created when chlorine, the disinfectant chemical added to the municipal system to kill foul bacteria, comes in contact with natural organic compounds found in the water supply.

Health Risks:

TTHMs are classified as reasonably expected human carcinogens. Long-term exposure correlates with a high risk of bladder as well as colon cancer, as well as central nervous system issues.

They are extremely toxic industrial chemicals that are widely present in waste materials' excrements and industrial outflow. For New Yorkers, it mostly linked with a massive Hudson River pollution.

Health Risks:

Exposure results in a heightened risk of cancer, skin alterations, immune system weaknesses, and problems with nervous and reproductive programs.

As highlighted by EPA, “ While large-scale clean-ups removed PCB-danmed sediments from the Upper Hudson River, remedial objectives still haven't been achieved. ” Because this site poses a legacy risk, New York State continues regulations for sport fishing for the Upper Hudson River, including a no-possess fee for a no-eat standard for such fish.

Microplastics refer to plastic fragments that are below 5 millimeters in size, or about the size of a rice grain or smaller.

Such minute fragments result from the gradual disintegration of day-to-day dumped plastics—bottles, baggings, and foam. The minute fragments find their way into the water body via urban stormwater runoff as well as sewage discharge.

Health Risks:

Sewer plants are not usually capable of filtering out such minute materials. This poses a risk of bioaccumulation as such poisons travel the food chain.

Microplastics are now being found embedded in human lung tissue and placenta, with a suspected risk of neurological, cardiovascular disease (heart attack, stroke), as well as developmental disease effects.

Chromium itself, as a natural metal, but its hexavalent form, Chromium 6 , is extremely toxic. Cr6 itself is usually a result of industrial manufacturing operations, such as metal refining, as well as emissions from steel mills and pulp.

Health Risks:

Chromium 6 has been classified as a known human carcinogen by the World Health Organization. It has been linked to cancer, liver, as well as reproductive system, injury, as well as skin allergy. Stomach tumors have been linked with ingestion of Cr6 compounds.

Fluoride stands out on this list as it has been added to the New York water supply on purpose.

Since 1966, fluoride has been added at fluoride-dental protection by the city — a policy that's governed by the NYC Health Department .

In 2024, almost all of the water distributed by both the Catskill/Delaware as well as Croton supplies was fluoridated. It has a 0.7 mg/L targeted concentration level.

Health Risks:

Though useful at cavity prevention doses in small quantities (after all, it's the active ingredient in toothpaste), long-term consumption of high doses of fluoride has been associated with some alarming health threats.

They range from dental or skeletal fluorosis, thyroid disease, cardiovascular disease, to reproduction abnormalities.

Public health records indicate that even an optimal dose of 0.7 ppm might create a risk of diminished child IQ, which could bring about a regulatory clampdown.

You deserve water quality that meets high health standards, not minimal legal minimums.

For overall protection from such constant menaces, technologies such as Reverse Osmosis (RO) filtration are EPA-identified Best Available Technologies, which are effective in taking out contaminants such as nitrates and PFAS.

Waterdrop provides certified RO water filters to deliver high-efficiency filtration, removing up to 99% of harmful contaminants, reducing waste, and improving water taste.