Badger Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

Badger, Alaska, in the Fairbanks North Star Borough — an unincorporated Fairbanks North Star Borough community in the eastern Fairbanks suburban corridor adjacent to North Pole and Salcha, part of the interior Alaska Fairbanks metropolitan area — receives its municipal water from Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Utilities or local water service areas, drawing from the Chena River or shallow Tanana River alluvial aquifer wells in the eastern Fairbanks lowlands.

The extremely soft 8.5 mg/L hardness and very low TDS of 12.8 mg/L reflect Badger's interior Alaska subarctic hydrologic character — among the softest supplies in the United States. The Chena River drains the Alaska Range foothills and the White Mountains terrain (largely Precambrian Birch Creek Schist and Paleozoic quartzite and granite — all insoluble silicate rock). The Tanana River alluvial aquifer in the Fairbanks lowlands consists of Pleistocene glaciofluvial sand and gravel derived from soft silicate rock, with permafrost limiting deep groundwater contact. The combination of resistant silicate bedrock and permafrost-constrained shallow groundwater transit produces the extremely soft, nearly pure water.

At 8.5 mg/L, Badger's water is essentially pure — no scale forms, soap lathers abundantly, and appliances last maximally. No descaling is needed. The PFAS level of 0.4 ppt is exceptional — one of the lowest in any North American community, reflecting the pristine interior Alaska watershed's vast distance from any military-industrial PFAS source. Interior Alaska's few military installations (Fort Wainwright, Eielson AFB — both Fairbanks area) have some PFAS legacy, but the dilution in the Chena-Tanana system at this distance keeps Badger's readings near background.