National Drinking Water Database
Massachusetts Water Resources Authority - Boston, MA
Serves 2,000,000 people - Test data available: 2004-2009
This drinking water quality report shows results of tests conducted by the water utility and provided to the Environmental Working Group (EWG) by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. It is part of EWG's national database that includes 47,667 drinking water utilities and 20 million test results. Water utilities nationwide detected more than 300 pollutants between 2004 and 2009. More than half of these chemicals are unregulated, legal in any amount. Despite this widespread contamination, the federal government invests few resources to protecting rivers, reservoirs, and groundwater from pollution in the first place. The information below summarizes test results for this utility and lists potential health concerns.
For more information from your water utility, please see their Consumer Confidence Report.
NOTE: MWRA reservoirs are well-protected and very few contaminants are ever found. During 2004 and early 2005, there were short-term high TTHM levels during a changeover in treatment. Since the change to ozone in July 2005, TTHM levels are now at all-time lows with averages of about 5-15 ppb.
Contaminants Exceeding Health Guidelines
-Tested 
-Detected 
-Over Health Guidelines 
-Over Legal Limit*
Other Detected Contaminants
Contaminants Not Detected - 109 chemicals
1,1,1,2-Tetrachloroethane, 1,1,1-Trichloroethane, 1,1,2,2-Tetrachloroethane, 1,1,2-Trichloroethane, 1,1-Dichloroethane, 1,1-Dichloroethylene, 1,1-Dichloropropene, 1,2 Dibromo-3-chloropropane (DBCP), 1,2,3-Trichlorobenzene, 1,2,3-Trichloropropane, 1,2,4-Trichlorobenzene, 1,2,4-Trimethylbenzene, 1,2-Dichloroethane, 1,2-Dichloropropane, 1,3,5-Trimethylbenzene, 1,3-Dichloropropane, 1,3-Dichloropropene, 2,2-Dichloropropane, 2,4,5-TP (Silvex), 2,4-d, 3-Hydroxycarbofuran, Alachlor (Lasso), Aldicarb, Aldicarb sulfone, Aldicarb sulfoxide, Aldrin, Antimony (total), Aroclor 1016, Aroclor 1221, Aroclor 1232, Aroclor 1242, Aroclor 1248, Aroclor 1254, Aroclor 1260, Arsenic (total), Atrazine, Benzene, Benzo[a]pyrene, Beryllium (total), Bromate, Bromobenzene, Bromochloromethane, Bromoform, Bromomethane, Butachlor, Cadmium (total), Carbaryl, Carbofuran, Carbon tetrachloride, Chlordane, Chloroethane, Chloromethane, Chromium (total), cis-1,2-Dichloroethylene, Copper, Dalapon, Di(2-Ethylhexyl) adipate, Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, Dibromomethane, Dicamba, Dichlorodifluoromethane, Dichloromethane (methylene chloride), Dieldrin, Dinoseb, Endrin, Ethylbenzene, Ethylene dibromide (EDB), Heptachlor, Heptachlor epoxide, Hexachlorobenzene (HCB), Hexachlorobutadiene, Isopropylbenzene, Lindane, m-Dichlorobenzene, Mercury (total inorganic), Methomyl, Methoxychlor, Metolachlor, Metribuzin, Monochlorobenzene (Chlorobenzene), n-Butylbenzene, n-Propylbenzene, Naphthalene, o-Chlorotoluene, o-Dichlorobenzene, Oxamyl (Vydate), p-Chlorotoluene, p-Dichlorobenzene, p-Isopropyltoluene, p-Xylene, Pentachlorophenol, Perchlorate, Picloram, Propachlor, sec-Butylbenzene, Selenium (total), Silver (total), Simazine, Styrene, tert-Butylbenzene, Tetrachloroethylene, Thallium (total), Toluene, Toxaphene, trans-1,2-Dichloroethylene, Trichloroethylene, Trichlorofluoromethane, Vinyl chloride, Xylenes (total)
Pollution Summary
| 17 | Total Contaminants Detected (2004 - 2009) Aluminum, Bromide, Barium (total), Cyanide, Manganese, Nitrate, Nitrite, Hexachlorocyclopentadiene, MTBE, Total haloacetic acids (HAAs), Chloroform, Bromodichloromethane, Dibromochloromethane, Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), Radon, Radium-226, Radium-228 |
| 3 | Agricultural Pollutants (pesticides, fertilizer, factory farms) |
| 4 | Sprawl and Urban Pollutants (road runoff, lawn pesticides, human waste) |
| 11 | Industrial Pollutants Aluminum, Bromide, Barium (total), Cyanide, Manganese, Nitrate, Nitrite, Hexachlorocyclopentadiene, MTBE, Radium-226, Radium-228 |
| 5 | Water Treatment and Distribution Byproducts (pipes and fixtures, treatment chemicals and byproducts) Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), Total haloacetic acids (HAAs), Chloroform, Bromodichloromethane, Dibromochloromethane |
| 10 | Naturally Occurring (naturally present but increased for lands denuded by sprawl, agriculture, or industrial development) Nitrate, Barium (total), Manganese, Radium-228, Radium-226, Aluminum, Nitrite, Radon, Bromide, Cyanide |
| 3 | Unregulated Contaminants EPA has not established a maximum legal limit in tapwater for these contaminants |
EPA Violation Summary
No violations were reported for this system since 2004.
Information on violations is drawn directly from EPA's national violations database in the Agency's Safe Drinking Water Information System. Analyses by others have raised questions about the quality of the information in EPA's database. For the purposes of this investigation, EWG is not showing below or including in our analyses, those violations for individual water suppliers that occurred on days for which the total number of violations assigned by EPA to that water supplier was greater than 20. This criteria was based on common characteristics of incorrect violations data as identified by water utilities, from a review of EPA's violations data by several hundred utilities prior to the release of EWG's investigation.