Haddington Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

Haddington, Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia County — a West Philadelphia neighborhood adjacent to Overbrook and the West Philadelphia corridor, a working-class residential community in west Philadelphia — receives its municipal water from the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD), which draws from the Schuylkill River at the Belmont intake and the Delaware River at the Baxter and Queen Lane intakes, serving all of Philadelphia.

The hard 204 mg/L hardness and elevated TDS of 519.7 mg/L reflect Philadelphia Water's Schuylkill-Delaware supply — harder than the typical soft New England or Pennsylvania highland supplies. The Schuylkill River drains the Ridge and Valley (Valley and Ridge carbonate — Ordovician and Cambrian limestone and dolomite of the Lebanon Valley), the Reading Prong (highly metamorphosed Precambrian-Cambrian marble and calc-silicate), and the Piedmont (Triassic Newark Basin calcareous red-bed terrain). These diverse calcareous and carbonate formations along the Schuylkill drainage area consistently produce the moderately hard water characteristic of the Philadelphia metropolitan water supply.

At 204 mg/L, Haddington's water is hard — scale builds in kettles and appliances within weeks, dishwashers require rinse aid, and bathroom fixtures develop calcium encrustation. Monthly descaling is practical. A water softener is recommended. The PFAS level of 10.5 ppt is very high and warrants a certified reverse osmosis drinking water filter — the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard (large historic AFFF user on the Delaware River), Willow Grove NAS, the Schuylkill Arsenal, and the dense Philadelphia-Delaware Valley PFAS industrial complex contribute to the high reading.