Reno's tap water comes from the Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA) and is treated to meet the federal Safe Drinking Water Act's legal standards. That's a real accomplishment, and it means Reno's water is safe in the sense regulators define. But "meets the legal minimum" and "healthy" are two different questions, and Northern Nevada's water has a few specific characteristics worth knowing about before you decide whether your household needs anything more than what comes straight from the tap.
Where Reno's Water Comes From
Most Reno-area homes on city water get it from TMWA, which draws from a mix of the Truckee River and groundwater wells depending on the season and neighborhood. That mixed sourcing is part of why water quality and hardness can vary slightly block to block, even within the same city.
Hardness and Total Dissolved Solids
Reno city water typically runs between 200 and 350 mg/L of total dissolved solids, with hardness in the 150 to 250 mg/L range. That's classified as "very hard," putting Reno among the harder municipal water supplies in the country. Hardness itself isn't a health hazard, but it's the reason for scale buildup on fixtures, appliances working harder than they should, and soap that never quite rinses clean. See our full breakdown of Reno's hard water problem for what that actually costs a typical household per year.
Chlorine and Disinfection Byproducts
Like every municipal water system, TMWA disinfects Reno's supply with chlorine or chloramine to keep bacteria out. That's necessary and it works. The tradeoff is that these disinfectants react with organic matter naturally present in the water to form trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs), a category known as disinfection byproducts. Reno's water tests above the Environmental Working Group's (EWG) health guidelines for several of these compounds, though still within the legal EPA limit.
Contaminants Above Health Guidelines
The EWG sets health guidelines that are, in most cases, meaningfully stricter than the federal legal standard, because they're based purely on long-term health research rather than what's affordable for a municipality to treat for at scale. By the EWG's guidelines, Reno's water exceeds recommended limits for around 16 different substances, including arsenic, uranium, hexavalent chromium, and several THM and HAA compounds. Arsenic in particular is a known issue in Northern Nevada's geology, not a treatment failure on TMWA's part; our arsenic in Reno water article covers why this region specifically runs high.
What This Actually Means for Your Household
None of this makes Reno tap water an emergency to stop drinking today. These are long-term exposure concerns, the kind that matter more over years of daily use than any single glass. That said, if your household includes young children, someone who's pregnant, an elderly family member, or anyone with a compromised immune system, it's worth taking seriously rather than assuming "legal" covers you.
Getting Your Own Answer
The only way to know what's actually coming out of your specific tap, as opposed to a citywide average, is to test it. Our Water Report tool gives you an instant read on your service area's known water quality data, and our free in-home water test goes further, testing your actual water at your actual address. A combination of whole-home filtration and a reverse osmosis system for drinking water covers the specific issues detailed above, hardness, chlorine byproducts, arsenic, and more, comprehensively rather than piecemeal.
Have questions about what's specifically in your neighborhood's water? Reach out to our team, and we'll walk you through it honestly, no pressure either way.
