What's in Adams County, PA tap water?
Adams County sits about 68 miles from our Arlington base and is served primarily by Gettysburg Municipal Authority, which provides water to roughly 12,400 people. It draws from the Piedmont reservoirs, rivers & wells. Piedmont and northern-Maryland communities draw from a mix of reservoirs, rivers (including the Susquehanna and Monocacy) and groundwater wells. Chlorination byproducts plus agricultural and industrial runoff drive most of the contaminants that exceed EWG's health guidelines.
Find a local installerGettysburg Municipal Authority water quality report, explained
What testing of Gettysburg Municipal Authority water shows for Adams County, compared with EWG's health guidelines. Being above a guideline is not a legal violation.
Primary water system (EPA)
Gettysburg Municipal Authority
Serves about 12,400 people
Contaminants EWG most often flags above its health guidelines for the Piedmont reservoirs, rivers & wells:
Larger areas have more than one water system. Enter your exact zip code below for your utility's own EPA record and EWG report.
Measured by the EPA · Adams County, PA
Adams County, PA tap water is fully legal.
It is also 82× the health standard for PFOA.
Adams County is served by Gettysburg Muni Auth, a surface-water system supplying roughly 12,425 people. It treats its own water rather than buying it from a regional wholesaler, so what comes out of the tap is its work end to end.
Surface water needs heavy disinfection, and chlorine reacting with organic matter in the river is what creates trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids. Those are the contaminants that most often sit above health guidelines here, and they form in the pipes after treatment rather than at the plant.
Every federal limit that applies here is met. Those limits weigh what removal costs. EWG says its health standards are “based only on protecting health and does not consider technical feasibility or the cost of water treatment”. Here is how far apart the two are.
Harm to the immune system; harm to fetal growth and child development; increased cholesterol · EPA limit 4 ppt (set 2024, enforceable from 2029)— also above this
Cardiovascular harm; harm to fetal growth · EPA limit 4 ppt (set 2024, enforceable from 2029)— also above this
Harm to the brain and nervous system · EPA limit 10 ppb (action level, lowered from 15 ppb, in force November 2027)
Harm to fetal growth and child development · no federal limit exists
Harm to fetal growth and child development · no federal limit exists
Hormone disruption; harm to fetal growth and child development · no federal limit exists
PFOS and PFOA were measured above the federal limits too. Compliance is judged on a running annual average rather than a single sample, so this is not a violation — but it is the number EPA itself set as the line.
The EPA's latest round found 5 PFAS compounds in this supply. Lead sampling put the ninetieth percentile at 2.2 ppb — meaning nine in ten homes tested below that, and one in ten above it. It carries 95 violations on file, none health-based — monitoring and reporting lapses rather than contamination.
Gettysburg Muni Auth, on the EPA's record
- Source
- surface water
- Connections served
- 4,515
- People served
- 12,425
- Violations on file
- 95, none health-based
How this water is treated before it reaches you
Treatment makes water safe to distribute. It is not designed to remove PFAS, and chlorine-based disinfection creates byproducts of its own.
Levels: EPA Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR5, 2023–2025) for PFAS, and the Lead and Copper Rule 90th-percentile result for lead and copper — the highest reported for Gettysburg Muni Auth. Health standards: EWG's published drinking water standards, updated February 2025. Levels vary by sampling point and date, and being above a health standard is not a legal violation.
16 contaminants above EWG's health guidelines
Everything EWG found above its guideline in Adams County's water, from testing in 2015-2023. A level can be under the legal limit and still be listed here: EWG's guidelines are set to protect health, not to be easy to meet.
| Contaminant | In this water | EWG guideline | Times over |
|---|---|---|---|
| Haloacetic acids (HAA9) | 26.9 ppb | 0.06 ppb | 448× |
| Arsenic | 1.68 ppb | 0.004 ppb | 420× |
| Haloacetic acids (HAA5) | 27.3 ppb | 0.1 ppb | 273× |
| Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) | 36.1 ppb | 0.15 ppb | 241× |
| Perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHXS) | 0.144 ppt | 0.001 ppt | 144× |
| Trichloroacetic acid | 14.3 ppb | 0.1 ppb | 143× |
| Bromodichloromethane | 5.91 ppb | 0.06 ppb | 99× |
| Chloroform | 29.2 ppb | 0.4 ppb | 73× |
| Dichloroacetic acid | 12.7 ppb | 0.2 ppb | 63× |
| Radium, combined (-226 and -228) | 0.68 pCi/L | 0.05 pCi/L | 14× |
| Nitrate | 1.76 ppm | 0.14 ppm | 13× |
| Dibromochloromethane | 1.00 ppb | 0.1 ppb | 10× |
| Dibromoacetic acid | 0.271 ppb | 0.03 ppb | 9× |
| Uranium | 2.74 pCi/L | 0.43 pCi/L | 6.4× |
| Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) | 0.411 ppt | 0.09 ppt | 4.6× |
| Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) | 0.944 ppt | 0.3 ppt | 3.1× |
Source: EWG Tap Water Database, Gettysburg Municipal Authority (PA7010019).
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Common in U.S. tap water
Adams County water quality FAQ
Is Adams County, PA tap water safe to drink?
Public water in Adams County meets federal EPA legal limits. But "legal" is not the same as "clean": across the Piedmont reservoirs, rivers & wells, independent testing routinely finds contaminants like total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) and haloacetic acids (HAA5) above EWG's stricter health guidelines. Enter your zip code above to see your exact utility's record.
What contaminants are common in Adams County water?
For the Piedmont reservoirs, rivers & wells, the contaminants that most often exceed health guidelines are total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), haloacetic acids (HAA5), nitrates (agricultural runoff), hexavalent chromium (chromium-6) and PFAS (forever chemicals). Your specific levels depend on your utility, which you can look up by zip code above.
Does Sanavia install reverse osmosis systems in Adams County?
Yes. Adams County is roughly 68 miles from our Arlington base and inside our service area. A Sanavia Hydra reverse osmosis system installs under your sink and reduces every contaminant class above, and we'll mail you a free water test kit.
Where does Adams County tap water come from?
Adams County's primary public water system is Gettysburg Municipal Authority, which serves roughly 12,400 people. It sits in the Piedmont reservoirs, rivers & wells, so its water shares that region's contaminant profile. Larger areas may have more than one utility, so enter your exact zip code above for your own system's EPA record.
Is well water in Adams County tested for these contaminants?
No. Private wells are not covered by municipal testing, so the responsibility falls on the homeowner. If your Adams County home is on a well, nitrate and naturally occurring contaminants are worth testing for specifically, and a reverse osmosis system reduces them at the tap. We'll mail you a free water test kit either way.
Contaminants common in the Piedmont reservoirs, rivers & wells
Each of these is a plain-English guide to a contaminant class common in Adams County and the surrounding Piedmont reservoirs, rivers & wells — what it is, the health context, and what actually removes it.
Reverse osmosis in Gettysburg & Adams County, PA
Gettysburg Municipal Authority treats this water to the federal standard, yet the contaminants listed above still exceed EWG’s stricter health guidelines — Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), Haloacetic acids (HAA5), Nitrates (agricultural runoff) and 2 more. Most of them either pass straight through treatment or form after the plant, in the pipes between it and the tap, which is why the fix has to be at the tap as well.
PFAS is the reason a carbon pitcher is not enough here. The compounds do not break down, they are measured in parts per trillion, and the federal limit that covers them is not enforceable until 2029. A reverse osmosis membrane is one of the few things at household scale that reduces them rather than passing them through.
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Full testing record for Adams County · Find a local installer
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