South Peabody Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

South Peabody, Massachusetts, a district of the City of Peabody in Essex County — part of Peabody, Massachusetts, historically the 'Leather City' (the world's largest leather-producing city in the 19th century, served by the Danvers and Ipswich River tributaries powering the tanneries), now a diverse North Shore Massachusetts suburban community adjacent to Salem — draws its municipal water supply from the Ipswich River watershed reservoirs and Danvers River supply via the City of Peabody Water Division and the Salem-Beverly Water Supply Board. Water hardness in South Peabody measures 38.5 mg/L — classified as very soft.

South Peabody's very soft supply reflects the Essex County North Shore's calcium-poor granodiorite and Carboniferous crystalline watershed. The Ipswich River upper watershed and associated reservoirs drain: the Essex County Proterozoic–Devonian crystalline terrain (Essex County granite and granodiorite — the Rockport Granite, Peabody Granite, and associated intrusive bodies — calcium-poor granitic intrusions); the Milford Pink Granite correlatives of the North Shore; and the Massachusetts North Shore Carboniferous coastal plain (calcium-poor). The calcium-poor granodiorite and crystalline North Shore watershed produces the very soft 38.5 mg/L at South Peabody.

With hardness at 38.5 mg/L, South Peabody residents enjoy very soft water with essentially no scale challenges. City of Peabody Water Division consistently delivers water meeting all Massachusetts MassDEP and EPA Safe Drinking Water Act requirements.