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Local water facts · Maryland
City of Bowie serves 25,000 people from Groundwater wells (Patuxent aquifers). The numbers below are from the utility’s own published testing, compiled by the EWG Tap Water Database (June 2026). The water is legal. The question is how it compares to health guidelines, which sit well below the legal limits.
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Each card shows how far a contaminant sits above its health guideline, the level scientists consider protective over a lifetime of drinking. A system can pass every legal test and still carry these levels.
4.85 ppb found · health guideline 0.15 ppb · legal limit 80 ppb
Cancer-linked Read the research on Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) →1.13 ppb found · health guideline 0.06 ppb
Cancer-linked Read the research on Haloacetic acids (HAA9) →0.7 pCi/L found · health guideline 0.05 pCi/L · legal limit 5 pCi/L
Cancer-linked0.717 ppb found · health guideline 0.1 ppb · legal limit 60 ppb
Cancer-linked Read the research on Haloacetic acids (HAA5) →Each bar starts at the health guideline and runs on a log scale. The faint ticks mark 10× and 100× over, and the dark notch is the legal limit where one exists.
Health-effect labels and guideline levels above come from the EWG Tap Water Database (June 2026), advisory benchmarks set by EWG’s researchers (methodology), not legal standards. The utility’s water meets federal legal limits.
Think per glass: at 32× the guideline, one glass of tap water carries what 32 glasses would hold at the health-guideline level. The top flag here is Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs). Not an emergency, but worth knowing, because the fix is specific and usually simpler than people expect.
ZIP codes served by City of Bowie include 20715, 20716, 20717, 20718, 20719, 20720, 20721. Get your free water report for your own ZIP: every flag scored, and which fix covers which one.
New to these reports? How to read a water report in 2 minutes.
Every system we track, plotted by Water Score, 0 to 100, higher is safer.
City of Bowie scores 62/100, ranking #2 of 58 tracked systems.
No single filter does everything. Each option covers different flags, so the right answer depends on what’s in your water and how your house is set up. You’re weighing options, not grades of good.
Good on chlorine taste and some disinfection byproducts. Cartridges fade fast, about every 2 months.
The drinking-water workhorse: handles PFAS, nitrate, arsenic and most of the hard flags, at one tap. How Reverse Osmosis (RO) installation works →
Treats every tap and protects pipes and appliances, usually paired with Reverse Osmosis (RO) for the kitchen. What a softener fixes (and can’t) →
The full breakdown of what each option does and can’t do: the 60-second version · all the free guides.
Type your ZIP and get the full picture, free: every flag, what it means per glass, and which fix covers it.
Get your free water reportThey probably haven’t seen these numbers. Send them this page. It takes 10 seconds, and they get their own free report.
📄 Get the printable one-page report (PDF)
Grab the postable Water Score card →