Newark Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

Newark, Delaware, in New Castle County — a major north Delaware university city (Newark is the home of the University of Delaware — the flagship university of Delaware, one of the older land-grant universities in the US; the University of Delaware dominates the Newark community economically and culturally), adjacent to Wilmington in the Brandywine Valley, a diverse New Castle County community with a significant South Asian-American, Latin-American, and university student population, and a community in the north Delaware corridor of the I-95 northeastern megalopolis — draws its municipal water supply from the White Clay Creek via the United Water Delaware or City of Newark Water Division. Water hardness in Newark measures 81 mg/L — classified as moderately soft.

Newark's moderate softness reflects the Delaware Piedmont's calcareous-poor crystalline geology. The White Clay Creek watershed at Newark–New Castle County drains: the Precambrian–Paleozoic Brandywine Gneiss and Wissahickon Schist (calcareous-poor Delaware Piedmont crystalline basement — the same highly calcareous-poor Appalachian Piedmont gneiss that supplies the southeast Pennsylvania area); and the Delaware Piedmont calcareous-poor metamorphic complex. City of Newark Water treatment produces the moderate 81 mg/L.

With hardness at 81 mg/L, Newark residents enjoy moderately soft water. United Water Delaware consistently delivers water meeting all Delaware DNREC and EPA Safe Drinking Water Act requirements.