Melrose Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

Melrose, New York, in the Bronx — one of the South Bronx's most iconic neighborhoods, the birthplace of hip-hop culture at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue and Cedar Park in the 1970s — receives its municipal water from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP), which draws from the Catskill-Delaware Watershed system supplying all five New York City boroughs. Melrose is served through the South Bronx distribution network connected to New York City Tunnel No. 1 and local Bronx pressure zone infrastructure.

The moderately soft 68.5 mg/L hardness and low TDS of 106.4 mg/L are consistent with the true character of the NYC Catskill-Delaware supply — soft, clean mountain water from the Catskill Mountain and Delaware River headwater reservoir system. This supply drains Devonian and Silurian shale, siltstone, and sandstone of the Catskill highlands — a non-carbonate rock terrane producing characteristically soft water (~65–80 mg/L). Melrose's supply values reflect a distribution zone that more directly represents the softness of the raw Catskill supply, in contrast to the elevated hardness readings found in other Bronx neighborhoods (East Tremont 177.5 mg/L, Morrisania 113.5 mg/L) that exhibit greater distribution system mineral accumulation.

At 68.5 mg/L, Melrose's water is moderately soft — among the cleaner, softer supplies in the South Bronx corridor. Scale forms slowly over many months in kettles and appliances, soap lathers well, and the dishwasher produces clean results without special treatment. Semi-annual descaling of heating appliances is adequate. The PFAS level of 3.4 ppt is one of the better readings in the Bronx — lower than the more industrially-influenced Bronx neighborhoods — reflecting Melrose's direct Catskill supply characterization and the good source water protection maintained by NYC DEP's watershed program.