Bothell, WA tap water
Supplied mostly by Alderwood Water & Wastewater District, plus 2 other utilities. Here's what the water means for your fish.
Disinfectant
Chlorine
Your water is treated with chlorine. It slowly gases off from standing water, and any water conditioner removes it.
Safety for fish and shrimp
Nitrate (NO₃)
Supplier's figureUp to 0.4 ppm (Low)
Typical 0.2 ppm
Low, so water changes lower your tank's nitrate well.
From the utility that supplies yours: City of Everett Public Works Dept., which supplies Alderwood Water & Wastewater District; Seattle Public Utilities, which supplies City of Bothell Water; Seattle Public Utilities, which supplies Northshore Utility District (2012–2019).
Copper at home taps (first draw)
Not detected (Low)
The 90th percentile of first-draw samples from homes: water that sat in household pipes for at least six hours.
Not detected in testing. Water that sits in household pipes overnight can still pick some up.
Published by your utility: Alderwood Water & Wastewater District's 2025 water quality report.
Chlorine or chloramine at the tap
0.2–1.4 ppm
Typical 0.7 ppm
At tap levels, chlorine and chloramine are toxic to fish, shrimp and the bacteria in a filter. Water conditioners are made for this range.
Published by your utility: Alderwood Water & Wastewater District's 2025 water quality report.
Water chemistry
General hardness
10–25 ppm
Typical 25 ppm
Soft. Good for tetras, rasboras and most shrimp. Livebearers, snails and African cichlids prefer harder water.
From Alderwood Water & Wastewater District's 2025 water quality report; Seattle Public Utilities, which supplies City of Bothell Water; Seattle Public Utilities, which supplies Northshore Utility District.
Carbonate hardness (alkalinity)
13–26 ppm
Typical 23 ppm
Little buffering. pH can drop quickly between water changes, especially with CO₂ or an older tank.
From Alderwood Water & Wastewater District's 2025 water quality report; Seattle Public Utilities, which supplies City of Bothell Water; Seattle Public Utilities, which supplies Northshore Utility District.
pH
7.1–9.1
Typical 8.3
Alkaline. Many utilities raise pH to protect pipes. Stability matters more than the exact number.
From Alderwood Water & Wastewater District's 2025 water quality report; Seattle Public Utilities, which supplies City of Bothell Water; Seattle Public Utilities, which supplies Northshore Utility District.
Total dissolved solids
Supplier's figure36 ppm
A rough measure of everything dissolved in the water. RO water reads near 0, so TDS is a quick way to compare waters.
From the utility that supplies yours: Seattle Public Utilities, which supplies City of Bothell Water; Seattle Public Utilities, which supplies Northshore Utility District.
Who supplies Bothell, WA
- 2025 water quality report
Alderwood Water & Wastewater District
Serves 37% of residents · Buys water from City of Everett Public Works Dept. · Chlorine
City of Bothell Water
Serves 33% of residents · Buys water from Seattle Public Utilities · Chlorine
Northshore Utility District
Serves 22% of residents · Buys water from Seattle Public Utilities · Chlorine
Our data comes from public records and is still incomplete. Many utilities don't publish every number, so we're adding more all the time. Your city's range is a starting point: testing your own tap is the only way to know exactly what's in it.
Tap water lookup covers US cities only for now. Want to know why it matters? Read our story on tap water.
Compiled by Shoal & Stem from public records. Free to cite with a link.