Gloucester, VA Water Quality Report
Learn where Gloucester County public drinking water comes from, how it is treated, what the 2025 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report found, and how those system-wide results relate to water at your home.
What the Latest Gloucester Water Quality Report Covers
Gloucester County Public Utilities' 2025 report explains the County's two drinking-water sources, surface-water and reverse-osmosis treatment, distribution-system disinfection, regulated monitoring results, lead and copper sampling, and other information for public-water customers.
Important: The County reports no drinking-water violations during 2025. A Consumer Confidence Report summarizes public-system monitoring and compliance; it does not provide a complete water analysis for every individual home.
Where Gloucester County Public Water Comes From
Gloucester County Public Utilities uses surface water from Beaverdam Reservoir and groundwater treated by the County's reverse-osmosis plant. The treated waters are blended before entering the public distribution system.
View the 2025 Gloucester Water Quality Report
The embedded document below is Gloucester County Public Utilities' Annual Drinking Water Quality Report for calendar year 2025.
Highlights From Gloucester's Official Water-Quality Data
The County reports no violations during 2025. The table below highlights selected results from the official report; the embedded PDF remains the complete source for definitions, ranges, sampling dates and regulatory context.
| Substance or Measure | Reported Result | Standard or Context | Report Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barium | 0.015 ppm | MCL 2 ppm | Below MCL |
| Fluoride | 0.15 ppm | MCL 4 ppm | Below MCL |
| Combined Radium | 0.7 pCi/L | MCL 5 pCi/L | Below MCL |
| Gross Alpha | 0.7 pCi/L | MCL 15 pCi/L | Below MCL |
| Turbidity | Highest detected 0.275 NTU | 100% below 0.3 NTU | 100% met turbidity limit |
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) | Highest locational running annual average 58 ppb | MCL 80 ppb | Below MCL |
| Haloacetic Acids (HAA) | Highest locational running annual average 27 ppb | MCL 60 ppb | Below MCL |
| Chlorine / Chloramines | Annual average 2.75 mg/L | MRDL 4 mg/L | No violation reported |
Some monitoring results in the 2025 report come from earlier required sampling periods. The County notes that the state allows certain contaminants to be monitored less than once per year when concentrations do not change frequently.
Surface Water and Groundwater Follow Different Treatment Paths
Gloucester's public-water system combines conventional surface-water treatment with membrane treatment for deep groundwater before the two finished waters are blended.
Surface Water Treatment
- Potassium permanganate is used to help remove iron, organics and manganese.
- Powdered activated carbon is used for color, organics, and taste-and-odor control.
- Alum and polymer support coagulation and settling.
- Water is filtered through sand and anthracite media.
- Chlorine provides disinfection, soda ash is used for pH control, and a corrosion inhibitor is added for distribution-system protection.
Groundwater Reverse Osmosis
- Deep groundwater is pretreated with antiscalant.
- Five-micron cartridge filters remove suspended particles before the membranes.
- High-pressure pumps move the water through reverse-osmosis membranes.
- The County states that RO removes dissolved solids and pathogens from the groundwater source.
- Finished RO water is sent to the clearwell and blended with treated surface water.
Chloramine disinfection: Gloucester County reports that it began adding ammonia in 2017 to form chloramines. The County says chloramines provide longer-lasting disinfection in the distribution system and have significantly reduced the potential for trihalomethane formation.
What Gloucester's Most Recent Tap Sampling Reported
Lead and copper can be affected by service-line and household plumbing materials, so customer-tap sampling provides a different type of information than treatment-plant monitoring.
Lead
The report lists a 2 ppb lead result at the 90th percentile, a sample range of <1–22 ppb, and 1 site exceeding the 10 ppb action level shown in the report.
Copper
The report lists a 0.212 ppm copper result at the 90th percentile, a sample range of 0.03–0.269 ppm, and 0 sites exceeding the 1.3 ppm action level.
Residential Samples
Gloucester County reports collecting 30 lead and copper samples from residences in 2024. Homeowners collected the samples and an independent laboratory performed the testing.
Service-line inventory
The 2025 report says Gloucester County had not identified any lead service lines in its distribution system at the time of publication, but some service-line materials were still unknown. The County continues its service-line material inventory.
What the 2025 Gloucester Report Does Not Quantify
Some water characteristics homeowners often ask about are not presented as finished-water measurements in Gloucester's 2025 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report.
Hardness
The 2025 report does not list a finished-water hardness value. A hardness level for an individual home should not be estimated from an older report or another nearby utility.
pH
The report explains that soda ash is used for pH control, but it does not provide a finished-water pH result in the reported monitoring tables.
PFAS
The 2025 Gloucester report does not include a PFAS or UCMR results table. That absence should not be interpreted as a PFAS detection or a non-detection.
Additional Details in Gloucester's 2025 Report
Sodium
The average sodium concentration in the October 1, 2025 sample was 26.1 mg/L. The report notes that this exceeds the recommended 20 mg/L maximum for people on a strict sodium diet.
Disinfection Byproducts
The report lists TTHM at a highest locational running annual average of 58 ppb and HAA at 27 ppb, both below the MCLs shown in the report.
No 2025 Violations
Gloucester Public Utilities states that it had no violations during 2025.
Source-water susceptibility: The report classifies Beaverdam Reservoir and RO Well #1 as having high susceptibility to contamination under the source-water assessment. The report specifically explains that this classification does not mean Gloucester's drinking water is currently unsafe.
What the Gloucester Water Quality Report Does—and Does Not—Tell You
The report explains Gloucester County's municipal water sources, treatment, monitoring and regulatory results. It does not provide a complete diagnosis of water at an individual property.
What the Report Tells You
- Where Gloucester County public drinking water comes from.
- How the public water supply is treated, blended and disinfected.
- Which regulated substances were detected and reported.
- How selected reported values compare with regulatory limits.
- System-wide information about lead, copper, sodium, turbidity and disinfection byproducts.
What It May Not Tell You About Your Home
- Conditions caused by an individual service line, plumbing or fixtures.
- Your home's actual hardness or finished-water pH.
- How water tastes, smells or behaves at a specific property.
- Water quality in a private well, which is separate from the County public system.
- Which treatment system best fits a specific household concern.
Explore Local Water Treatment Options
Continue with the Gloucester page that best matches your household concern or treatment goal.
Water Problems
Review local contaminant data, household concerns and treatment options.
Explore Gloucester water problems →Reverse Osmosis
Learn about highly filtered drinking and cooking water at a dedicated faucet.
Explore Gloucester reverse osmosis →Water Conditioners
Compare whole-home treatment for conditioning, scale and selected taste or odor concerns.
Explore Gloucester water conditioners →PFAS Water Filters
Compare whole-home PFAS filtration and reverse-osmosis drinking-water treatment.
Explore Gloucester PFAS filtration →Well Water Treatment
Explore property-specific treatment for private-well water conditions.
Explore Gloucester well-water treatment →Free Water Test
Schedule an in-home evaluation for hardness and common aesthetic water concerns.
Schedule a Gloucester free water test →Gloucester Water Quality Report FAQs
What year does the latest Gloucester Water Quality Report cover?
The current Gloucester County Public Utilities Annual Drinking Water Quality Report covers calendar year 2025. Some individual monitoring results come from earlier required sampling periods, including radiological sampling from 2023 and lead-and-copper residential sampling from 2024.
Where does Gloucester County public drinking water come from?
Public drinking water comes from two sources: surface water from Beaverdam Reservoir and deep groundwater treated at the County reverse-osmosis plant. The finished waters are blended before distribution.
Did Gloucester County have drinking-water violations in 2025?
No. Gloucester Public Utilities states in the 2025 report that it had no violations during 2025.
Does Gloucester use chloramine?
Yes. The County reports that ammonia has been added since 2017 to form chloramines, which provide longer-lasting disinfection as water moves through the distribution system.
Does the 2025 report give a hardness or pH value?
The 2025 report does not list a finished-water hardness value or a finished-water pH measurement. It does explain that soda ash is used for pH control during treatment.
Does the 2025 Gloucester report include PFAS results?
The 2025 report does not include a PFAS or UCMR results table. That means the report itself should not be used to claim either a PFAS detection or a PFAS non-detection.
Does the County report tell me what is in the water at my faucet?
It provides public-system monitoring and some customer-tap compliance sampling, such as lead and copper testing, but it does not provide a complete analysis of every home's plumbing, fixtures or individual tap water.
Does this report apply to private wells in Gloucester?
No. Gloucester County's annual drinking-water report applies to the public-water system. Private wells need property-specific evaluation and, when appropriate, laboratory testing.
Have Questions About Water at Your Gloucester Home?
Schedule a free in-home water evaluation to review hardness and common aesthetic water concerns and discuss whether additional treatment fits your household goals.
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