City of Detroit Water Quality Report

Understanding what’s in your water starts with testing. Culligan of Detroit offers several testing options to identify aesthetic issues, health concerns, and unregulated contaminants in your home’s water supply.

1. Free Water Test for Aesthetic Issues
If you’ve noticed spots on dishes, scale buildup, or unusual taste or odor, Culligan offers a free in-home water test. This quick test measures contaminants like Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and gives you instant results.

2. Lead Testing – $100
For health-related concerns, especially in older homes with legacy plumbing, Culligan provides professional lead testing for $100. To ensure accuracy, lead samples must be taken from the very first water pulled from your plumbing each day, before any taps are used. This test helps determine if lead is leaching from your pipes or fixtures.

3. PFAS Testing – $150
PFAS are unregulated contaminants, that the EPA recently set new national standards for. Detroit’s 2024 water report does not include PFAS levels, but Culligan of Detroit offers comprehensive PFAS testing starting at $150. This testing identifies whether these chemicals are present in your home’s water supply so you can take steps toward treatment if needed.

DID YOU KNOW water quality reports, also known as “Consumer Confidence Reports (CCRs),” are annual documents that all public water systems are required to provide to you via mail and online. These reports are supposed to provide important information about the quality of the drinking water delivered over the previous year.

They can be difficult to read or understand. They are often many pages long and contain complex tables and charts. Culligan Water wants to change this and help you MAKE SENSE OF YOUR WATER.

This easy-to-read report will provide you with the following:

1) Infrastructure and Improvements:
Detroit’s water is treated by the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) and delivered to residents by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) through more than 2,700 miles of water mains. GLWA and DWSD continue to invest heavily in infrastructure upgrades, with about $100 million annually dedicated to water and sewer improvements, stormwater management, and advanced treatment processes. These investments aim to enhance reliability, reduce service interruptions, and ensure compliance with evolving safety standards.

2) Water Sources and Usage:
Detroit’s drinking water comes primarily from the Detroit River, with additional intakes from Lake St. Clair and Lake Huron. Four treatment plants draw from the Detroit River, while a fifth plant in St. Clair County sources from Lake Huron. This blended system ensures year-round supply while maintaining regulatory compliance. Because the Detroit River is part of a highly urbanized watershed, it is considered highly susceptible to potential contamination, making source-water protection programs essential.

3) Health Concerns – Lead, Copper, and Organic Contaminants:
The 2024 report shows lead at 13 ppb (90th percentile value), just under the federal action level of 15 ppb. While Detroit passed compliance, older lead service lines and household plumbing remain sources of concern. Copper levels were low (0.1 ppm), below the action threshold. However, Total Organic Carbon (TOC) exceeded compliance levels in early 2024 (2.03 ppm, above the treatment technique limit), highlighting risks for the formation of disinfection by-products like Haloacetic Acids (24.5 ppb) and Total Trihalomethanes (45.3 ppb)—both present in Detroit’s system but under federal limits.

4) Aesthetic and Secondary Concerns – Hardness, Taste, and Odor Issues:
Detroit’s water is moderately hard, with an average hardness of 100 ppm (about 6 gpg) due to calcium and magnesium. While not a health risk, hardness minerals contribute to scale buildup on plumbing, spots on dishes, and dry skin after bathing. Turbidity levels averaged 0.15 NTU, well below the 1 NTU maximum, though temporary spikes may affect water clarity. Other naturally occurring substances like sodium (4.7 ppm), chloride (10.6 ppm), and sulfates (29.1 ppm) may influence taste.

Some contaminants only affect how water looks, tastes, or smells. These are called aesthetic issues and don’t pose a health risk, but they can make your water less enjoyable to use.

Other contaminants are classified as health concerns because long-term exposure, even at low levels, may impact your well-being. These are closely regulated by the EPA.

Finally, there are unregulated contaminants. These don’t yet have federal limits, but utilities like Detroit still monitor them because they may become regulated in the future.

Below are three examples of each type of water contamination taken from the 2024 Detroit Water Quality Report:

Aesthetic contaminants don’t pose a direct health risk, but they can affect how water looks, tastes, or smells. The 2024 Detroit Water Quality Report identifies Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) as the primary aesthetic concern.

TDS refers to the concentration of minerals, salts, and organic matter dissolved in water. While not harmful on its own, high levels of TDS can cause water to taste bitter, salty, or metallic and may leave behind scaling and spots on dishes, faucets, and appliances.

Detroit’s water averaged 122 ppm of TDS in 2024, which is well below the EPA’s recommended threshold of 500 ppm, but still high enough for residents to notice common hard water issues.

Noticing spots on dishes, buildup on faucets, or water that doesn’t taste quite right? These are common aesthetic issuescaused by minerals like Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). While they don’t pose a health risk, they can make your water less enjoyable to use.

Culligan of Detroit offers a free water test that can quickly measure TDS and other aesthetic concerns in your tap water. It’s a simple way to see what’s in your water and explore options to improve its taste and quality.

Health-related contaminants are closely monitored because long-term exposure can lead to serious health effects. In Detroit’s 2024 Water Quality Report, four key contaminants fall into this category: lead, copper, nitrates, and chlorine.

Although Detroit’s results were within EPA limits, these contaminants remain important to track and manage to ensure safe drinking water.

Lead is one of the most serious contaminants found in drinking water, especially in cities with older plumbing like Detroit. Even though Detroit’s 2024 Water Quality Report shows lead levels below the EPA’s action level, some homes may still experience elevated amounts if they have lead service lines, solder, or older fixtures.

To give homeowners peace of mind, Culligan of Detroit offers professional lead testing for $100. For the most accurate results, the sample must be taken from the very first water pulled from your plumbing that day, before any taps are used. This ensures the test reflects the water that has been sitting in your pipes overnight — when lead exposure is most likely.

PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), also known as “forever chemicals,” are a group of man-made compounds found in water supplies across the United States. These contaminants are concerning because they do not break down easily in the environment and have been linked to health risks such as cancer, immune system impacts, and developmental issues.

Detroit’s 2024 Water Quality Report does not include PFAS test results. However, the EPA introduced its first-ever national, legally enforceable drinking water standards for PFAS in April 2024, with compliance required by 2025. Although utilities like Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) and the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) are preparing for these new rules, the current report does not provide detection levels for compounds such as PFOS, PFPeA, PFBS, or PFHxA.

While Detroit’s utility continues to monitor developments, residents who want more immediate information about PFAS in their homes can arrange for independent testing. Culligan of Detroit offers comprehensive PFAS testing starting at $150 to help homeowners understand their water quality and consider treatment options if needed.

Detroit’s 2024 Water Quality Report measured the city’s water hardness at an average of 100 mg/L (about 6 grains per gallon), classifying it as moderately hard water. This level of hardness comes from naturally occurring minerals like calcium and magnesium found in the Detroit River and Lake Huron sources.

Disinfection by-products (DBPs) are created when disinfectants like chlorine react with natural organic matter in source water. In Detroit, the most common DBPs measured are Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) and Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM). These substances are regulated by the EPA because long-term exposure may increase the risk of health problems, including cancer.

The report also tracks Total Organic Carbon (TOC). While TOC itself is not harmful, it provides the organic matter that allows DBPs to form. Detroit’s 2024 report showed a treatment technique violation for TOC, meaning the utility did not meet the required removal percentage during one quarter.

Although all DBP levels were below the EPA’s maximum limits, they remain important to monitor because of their potential long-term health effects.

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department has consistently stated that its drinking water “meets or exceeds all federal and state regulatory standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act.” There is no record of MCL violations or other compliance issues in the annual reports from 2020 through 2023.

However, there have been two records of minor violations in 2024: A Treatment Technique (TT) Violation for TOC & Monitoring Lapse in Turbidity

Aside from these, no other violations (health-based or numeric contaminant exceedances) were reported in 2020-2024. To learn more about water quality report violations visit the source at the EPA Echo site.