Newburyport Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

Newburyport, Massachusetts, in Essex County — an Essex County city adjacent to Amesbury and Salisbury at the mouth of the Merrimack River in the northern Massachusetts Coastal Zone, a preserved Federal-period city and historic shipping port — receives its municipal water from Newburyport Water Division, drawing from the Artichoke Reservoir (West Newbury, Essex County) — the primary Newburyport municipal water supply.

The moderately hard 101.5 mg/L hardness and TDS of 247.7 mg/L are harder than Amesbury MA (70 mg/L, TDS 146 — also Essex County), despite the two cities being adjacent. The Artichoke Reservoir watershed likely picks up more mineral loading than the Amesbury Powow River-Lake Gardner watershed — possibly from glacial till overburden mineral dissolution rather than bedrock sources. Both supplies drain similar Precambrian Cape Ann Granite terrain, but the Artichoke drainage basin may have a greater calcareous till influence.

At 101.5 mg/L, Newburyport's water is moderately hard — scale builds in kettles and appliances over months, dishwashers benefit from rinse aid, and faucet aerators need periodic cleaning. Quarterly descaling is appropriate. The PFAS level of 10.2 ppt is very elevated and warrants a certified reverse osmosis drinking water filter — Pease Air Force Base (Portsmouth, NH — one of the first documented PFAS contamination sites in the US, in the Merrimack-Artichoke watershed), and the north Massachusetts-New Hampshire PFAS complex contribute to Newburyport's very elevated readings.