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County water report

Adams County Water Report

Drinking-water compliance, watershed health, monitoring records, and river conditions for Adams County, Pennsylvania.

Water grade

D

Water score

41.8

State rank

#34

of 67

Health violations

14

EPA SDWIS, 5-year lookback

Watershed impaired

0.0%

24,604 water bodies assessed

Monitoring sites

24

9,724 recent measurements

Live streamflow

26%

West Conewago Creek at East Berlin, PA

Water at a glance

Key Water Indicators for Adams County

EPA SDWIS

Safety Grade

D

Score: 41.8 / 100

EPA SDWIS

Active Violations

14

5-year health-based lookback

EPA ATTAINS

Watershed Health

0% impaired

24,604 bodies assessed

USGS NWIS

Streamflow Snapshot

26% of mean

West Conewago Creek at East Berlin, PA

EPA WQP

Monitoring Sites

24

9,724 recent readings

Source: EPA SDWIS · Safe Drinking Water Information System

Drinking Water Compliance

Compliance grade

D

Based on EPA SDWIS compliance history.

Water score

Higher scores indicate cleaner recent compliance records.

41.8/100

Health violations

14

Health-based violations

Violations per 100K served

29.0

Population-normalized SDWIS rate

Editorial analysis

Understanding Adams County’s Water

Drinking Water Quality Overview

EPA SDWIS

Adams County's drinking water received a D grade, scoring 41.8 out of 100. Over the past five years, EPA SDWIS records 14 health-based violations — a pattern that public water utilities are required to disclose and correct.

Watershed Conditions

EPA ATTAINS

Under the Clean Water Act §303(d), EPA ATTAINS tracks whether waterways meet quality standards for drinking, recreation, and aquatic life (reporting cycle: 2022). None of the assessed waterways are listed as impaired (0 of 24,604 water bodies) across Adams County's watersheds. Impairment does not mean tap water is unsafe — it measures ambient waterway conditions upstream of treatment, not finished drinking water.

River & Streamflow Status

USGS NWIS

USGS NWIS gauge data (as of 2026-05-14T14:45:00.000-04:00) puts West Conewago Creek at 74.5 cfs — well below its long-term average at 26% of mean — low-flow conditions worth noting for water-dependent ecosystems. Streamflow is a leading indicator of drought stress, sediment load, and dilution capacity: low flows concentrate pollutants and warm water temperatures, stressing aquatic life and, in surface-water-dependent systems, the source water quality for treatment plants.

Monitoring Network

EPA WQP

EPA's Water Quality Portal (WQP) aggregates monitoring data from federal, state, and tribal agencies. Adams County has moderate coverage with 24 active monitoring sites with 9,724 recent measurements on record. Predominant monitoring categories include physical and inorganics, minor, metals. More monitoring sites generally indicate greater scientific attention to local water conditions — and provide the baseline data that regulators use to set future impairment listings.

Editorial advisory

What the data suggests for Adams County

Water Verdict

Adams County receives a below-average water quality assessment with a grade of D and a score of 41.8 out of 100. Residents should review their utility's Consumer Confidence Report and may want to consider additional water filtration for drinking.

Violation Context

Adams County has recorded 14 health-based violations, indicating multiple instances where federal contaminant limits or treatment requirements were not met. At 29.0 violations per 100,000 people served, this rate is high and signals significant water quality management issues.

Consumer Guidance

Adams County's drinking-water compliance is below average with a Grade D, indicating repeated or unresolved violations in the recent record. Adams County's drinking-water compliance score is 41.8 out of 100. The violation rate for Adams County is 29.0 per 100,000 people served. Residents are encouraged to use an NSF 53 or NSF 58-certified filter for drinking and cooking water until the underlying violations are resolved. Running tap water for 30 seconds before use and avoiding older lead-pipe connections can also reduce exposure risk. The current Consumer Confidence Report from your utility will specify the contaminants of concern. With 24 active water-quality monitoring sites in Adams County, data coverage is strong. A pipeline streamflow snapshot from the West Conewago Creek gauge is also available on this page.

Regional Context

Adams County has water quality close to the average county in Pennsylvania. Its water score is within 2.9 points of the state average, meaning its overall water system performance is broadly representative of Pennsylvania as a whole.

Advisory text summarizes county-level public records and is not a replacement for your utility's current Consumer Confidence Report or direct local notices.

Contaminants & Resources

Key issues flagged in Adams County's water environment

Official EPA Resources for Adams County

EPA How's My Waterway

Interactive watershed health data for Adams County

EPA ECHO: Drinking Water Systems

Search water utilities and violation records for Adams County

Consumer Confidence Reports (PA)

Annual water quality reports from utilities in Pennsylvania

Clean Water Act §303(d)

Watershed Health

Impaired Water Bodies

0.0%

0 of 24,604 assessed

Mostly healthy

Top Impairment Causes

No specific impairment causes reported for the assessed water bodies in this county.

Source: EPA ATTAINS · Reporting cycle 2022

Impairment is determined under the Clean Water Act §303(d): a water body is impaired when it fails to meet state-defined quality standards for designated uses (drinking, recreation, aquatic life). Assessment coverage varies by state; counties without assessed water bodies are not shown.

Past 5 years

Water Quality Monitoring

Monitoring Sites

24

Active in the past 5 years

Measurements Recorded

9.7K

9,724 total readings

Most Measured

  • Physical
  • Inorganics, Minor, Metals
  • Organics, Pesticide

Categories measured most frequently

Data from the EPA Water Quality Portal (WQP), aggregating monitoring records from federal, state, and tribal sources. Each measurement represents a single sample analyzed for a specific characteristic (e.g., E. coli, pH, dissolved oxygen, nitrogen).

Live USGS Streamgage

River & Stream Conditions

Current Discharge

74.5cfs

May 14, 6:45 PM UTC

vs Long-Term Average

26%

Well below typical

Primary Streamgage

West Conewago Creek at East Berlin, PA

USGS site
01573825
Drainage area
218 sq mi
Long-term mean
286 cfs

One representative streamgage (the one with the largest drainage area in the county). Many counties have multiple gauges; this view summarizes the primary one. The long-term mean is the full-record annual average; the percent-of-typical value compares the latest reading against that average.

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Water Cost Estimate

3

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Annual Total

$558

Monthly

$47

Water Bill

$558/yr

Filter Cost

$0/yr

Safety Grade for Adams County:C — Moderate

Some violations or watershed impairment detected.

Estimates use the national average residential water rate ($0.0068/gal, EPA/AWWA 2023) and EPA WaterSense per-person consumption baseline (75 gal/person/day). Actual bills vary by utility, usage tier, and local infrastructure fees. For informational purposes only.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the water quality in Adams County, Pennsylvania?
Adams County, Pennsylvania has a drinking-water quality grade of D with a score of 41.8/100, based on EPA SDWIS compliance data. The county has 14 health-based drinking water violations over the past 5 years. Watershed health, monitoring records, and streamflow snapshots are reported separately on this page.
Are there any water violations in Adams County?
Adams County has 14 health-based drinking water violations recorded by the EPA over the past 5 years. Health-based violations indicate instances where contaminant levels exceeded EPA Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs). Violations may have been resolved — check with your local water utility for current status.
How healthy are the watersheds in Adams County?
EPA ATTAINS assessments under Clean Water Act §303(d) indicate 0.0% of Adams County's 24,604 assessed water bodies are classified as impaired (0 impaired). Impairment means the water body fails to meet state quality standards for at least one designated use — drinking water source, recreation, aquatic life, or fish consumption. Note: watershed impairment doesn't always translate to tap-water issues; treatment plants can remove most regulated contaminants.
How much water-quality monitoring happens in Adams County?
EPA's Water Quality Portal records 9,724 measurements from 24 monitoring sites in Adams County over the past five years. The most frequently measured characteristic groups are Physical, Inorganics, Minor, Metals, Organics, Pesticide. Each measurement is a single sample analyzed for one characteristic (E. coli, pH, dissolved oxygen, etc.). High monitoring density means more scientific evidence behind any reported signal — it does not by itself indicate water quality.
What's happening with rivers in Adams County right now?
Adams County's primary USGS streamgage on the West Conewago Creek has a pipeline snapshot of 74.5 cubic feet per second — 26% of the long-term mean of 286.4 cfs. This is well below typical — often a signal of drought stress on source water. For the latest gauge feed, visit waterdata.usgs.gov.
How does Adams County water compare to the Pennsylvania average?
Adams County's SDWIS water quality score of 41.8/100 is higher than the Pennsylvania state average of 38.9. The average water quality grade across Pennsylvania is F, based on data from 67 counties with available SDWIS data.
Is tap water safe to drink in Adams County?
Based on EPA SDWIS data, Adams County has a water quality grade of D (41.8/100). This indicates below-average compliance with significant violations. Residents may want to consider home water filtration or independent testing. The grade speaks to the public water system, not the watershed — for watershed-level concerns, see the Watershed Health zone. For the most up-to-date information, contact your local water utility or review your Consumer Confidence Report (CCR).
Why does Adams County have so many water violations?
Adams County has 14 health-based drinking water violations on record from the EPA SDWIS database. A higher violation count can result from aging infrastructure, underfunded water utilities, agricultural runoff contamination, or industrial pollution. Counties with more water systems may also see more violations simply due to scale. Residents concerned about water quality should consider independent water testing and home filtration systems.
How does Adams County rank for water quality in Pennsylvania?
Adams County ranks #34 out of 67 counties in Pennsylvania by SDWIS water quality score (1 = best). With a score of 41.8/100, it falls in the middle third of counties statewide. The ranking reflects EPA SDWIS compliance only — not watershed impairment, monitoring density, or streamflow, which are tracked separately on this page.

Counties with Similar Water Quality

Schuylkill County

Pennsylvania

D

41.9

Water score

Lancaster County

Pennsylvania

D

42.8

Water score

Lackawanna County

Pennsylvania

D

43.1

Water score

Data Sources

Drinking-water compliance data from the EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) via the ECHO enforcement database. Scores reflect compliance history and health-based violation counts.

Watershed health and impaired-waterway data from the EPA ATTAINS Clean Water Act §303(d) assessments, state-reported and EPA-finalized.

Water-quality monitoring counts from the EPA Water Quality Portal (WQP), federated USGS, EPA, and state agency sampling records over a rolling 5-year window.

Live streamflow from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS), continuous discharge measurements from the largest-drainage gauge in each county, compared against the full-record long-term annual mean.

Disclaimer: This data is informational only. It is not health, legal, or professional advice. For concerns about your specific water supply, contact your local water utility.

By Evan Brooks, Data EditorUpdated Reviewed by Evan Brooks, Data Editor

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