Jamestown Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

Jamestown, New York, the Chautauqua County seat — a major western New York Allegheny Plateau city (Jamestown is the Chautauqua County seat and one of the most culturally significant small cities in western New York — birthplace of Lucille Ball (the most beloved comedian in American television history — Lucy was born in Jamestown in 1911; the National Comedy Center in Jamestown (opened 2018) is the only museum in the United States dedicated to the art of comedy and features the world's largest collection of comedy artifacts)); Jamestown is also famous for the Chautauqua Institution (one of the most important educational and cultural retreat communities in the United States — the Chautauqua Institution on Chautauqua Lake offers an extraordinary summer program of lectures, concerts, opera, and education that has been influential in American intellectual life since 1874)), a diverse Chautauqua County community with a significant Swedish-American, Italian-American, and Puerto Rican-American population, and home of a significant furniture manufacturing heritage — draws its municipal water supply from the Chadakoin River watershed via the City of Jamestown Water Division. Water hardness in Jamestown measures 115 mg/L — classified as moderately hard.

Jamestown's moderate hardness reflects the western New York Allegheny Plateau watershed's calcareous-moderate Devonian shale geology. The Chadakoin River drains the Devonian Canadaway and Conewango Groups (calcareous-moderate shale). City of Jamestown treatment produces the moderate 115 mg/L.

At 115 mg/L, Jamestown residents encounter moderate scale accumulation. Monthly cleaning is recommended. City of Jamestown Water Division consistently delivers water meeting all New York State DEC and EPA Safe Drinking Water Act requirements.