Columbia, MO tap water
Supplied mostly by City of Columbia Utilities, plus 1 other utility. Here's what the water means for your fish.
Disinfectant
Chlorine or chloramine
Utilities here use chlorine or chloramine, depending on which one serves your address. Chlorine slowly gases off from standing water; chloramine doesn't.
Safety for fish and shrimp
Nitrate (NO₃)
Area estimateUp to 6.1 ppm (Low)
Typical 0.2 ppm
Low, so water changes lower your tank's nitrate well.
Area estimate from nearby wells: USGS well samples in your county (2000–2023).
Copper at home taps (first draw)
Up to 0.23 ppm (Worth knowing)
The 90th percentile of first-draw samples from homes: water that sat in household pipes for at least six hours.
Shrimp and snails are sensitive to copper. Water that sits in household pipes picks up the most; it drops once the tap has run for a minute.
Published by your utility: City of Columbia Utilities' 2025 water quality report.
Water chemistry
General hardness
187 ppm
Moderately hard. Great for livebearers, and most community fish adapt.
Published by your utility: City of Columbia Utilities' 2025 water quality report.
Carbonate hardness (alkalinity)
137 ppm
Strong buffering. pH stays steady and hard to lower without RO water.
Published by your utility: City of Columbia Utilities' 2025 water quality report.
pH
7.5–8.2
Typical 8.2
Alkaline. Many utilities raise pH to protect pipes. Stability matters more than the exact number.
From City of Columbia Utilities' 2025 water quality report; EPA monitoring data (2012–2025).
Total dissolved solids
329 ppm
A rough measure of everything dissolved in the water. RO water reads near 0, so TDS is a quick way to compare waters.
Published by your utility: City of Columbia Utilities' 2025 water quality report.
- City of Columbia Utilities softens its water at the plant, so it may be softer than the local groundwater.
Who supplies Columbia, MO
- 2025 water quality report
City of Columbia Utilities
Serves 84% of residents · Groundwater (wells) · Chloramine
University of Missouri Columbia
Serves 8% of residents · Groundwater (wells) · 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.