Jefferson, MD tap water
Supplied mostly by Cambridge Farms, 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)
Up to 32 ppm (Worth knowing)
Typical 12 ppm
Water changes can't take your tank's nitrate below this level.
From EPA monitoring data (2012–2018).
Water chemistry
General hardness
Area estimate35–223 ppm
Typical 67 ppm
Soft. Good for tetras, rasboras and most shrimp. Livebearers, snails and African cichlids prefer harder water.
Area estimate from nearby wells: USGS well samples in your county (2001–2019).
Carbonate hardness (alkalinity)
123 ppm
Strong buffering. pH stays steady and hard to lower without RO water.
From EPA monitoring data, measured before treatment (2013–2019).
pH
7.1–7.2
Typical 7.1
Most community fish do well here. Stable water matters more than the exact number.
From EPA monitoring data (2013).
Total dissolved solids
Area estimate64–292 ppm
Typical 116 ppm
A rough measure of everything dissolved in the water. RO water reads near 0, so TDS is a quick way to compare waters.
Area estimate from nearby wells: USGS well samples in your county (2001–2019).
- Cambridge Farms and Copperfield add phosphate to protect pipes. It can feed algae in tanks without much plant growth.
Who supplies Jefferson, MD
Cambridge Farms
Serves 33% of residents · Groundwater (wells) · Chlorine
Copperfield
Serves 14% of residents · Groundwater (wells) · Chlorine
New Design - Frederick County
Serves 6% of residents · Lake or river water · 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.