Every chemical on your water report, explained

When the city adds chlorine to clean river water, the chlorine mixes with natural bits in the water (like leaves and dirt) and makes a group of new chemicals, mainly trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids. You can't taste or smell them, and most water systems here run hundreds of times over the safe level. This is the biggest group of chemicals on the typical report.

Chromium-6, the chemical from the Erin Brockovich movie, gets into water from factories and rusting metal parts. It's a dissolved metal, so carbon filters and pitchers do nothing for it. Reverse osmosis is the one tap filter that reliably removes it.

Nitrate comes from fertilizer, septic systems, and the ground itself. It's the one chemical on the report that can be harmful right away, to babies under six months and during pregnancy, not just after many years. Like chromium-6, it's dissolved and slips right past carbon; reverse osmosis is the fix.

PFAS (the 'forever chemicals' from firefighting foam, non-stick pans, and packaging) don't break down in nature or in your body. The government set drinking-water limits in 2024. Whether your home is affected depends on what's nearby, which is exactly why we test instead of guess.

Lead almost never comes from the city, it comes from the home's own pipes: older lines, lead solder, and old brass fittings. There's no safe amount for children. Because it depends on your pipes, the only way to know is to test the water at your tap.

Hardness is the calcium and magnesium in water that leave scale on fixtures, film on glasses, and dry out skin and hair. Most water here is hard. It's not a health danger, it's the everyday comfort-and-appliance problem people feel, and the one a softener is made to fix.