Fairbanks Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

Fairbanks, Alaska, the Fairbanks North Star Borough seat — a major interior Alaska city (Fairbanks is the second-largest city in Alaska and the largest in the interior — a subarctic city at approximately 64°N latitude, the commercial, educational, and logistical hub of interior Alaska; Fairbanks experiences extreme temperature ranges, from summer highs above 90°F to winter lows below -60°F, one of the widest temperature ranges of any city in the United States), home of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (the flagship university of the University of Alaska system — a world leader in Arctic and subarctic research, geophysics, and northern studies; UAF operates many of the most important Arctic research programs in the world), famous for the Aurora Borealis (Fairbanks is one of the world's premier aurora viewing destinations — the city's subarctic latitude within the auroral oval zone produces spectacular northern lights displays hundreds of nights per year), and a city that serves as the gateway for Alaska's remote interior communities — draws its municipal water supply from the Chena River via the Fairbanks Municipal Utilities System. Water hardness in Fairbanks measures 10 mg/L — classified as extremely soft.

Fairbanks's extremely soft supply reflects the interior Alaska watershed's calcareous-poor geology. The Chena River (Tanana River watershed) drains: the Alaska Range granite and metamorphic (calcareous-poor crystalline basement); and the Quaternary calcareous-poor Tanana River alluvium (permafrost-laden soils with essentially no dissolved carbonates). FMUS minimal treatment produces the extremely soft 10 mg/L.

With hardness at 10 mg/L, Fairbanks residents enjoy extremely soft water. FMUS consistently delivers water meeting all Alaska DEC and EPA Safe Drinking Water Act requirements.