New Orleans water quality

Citywide service overview · Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans (Carrollton) · PWS ID LA1071009 · Mississippi River (surface water)

The short answer

New Orleans water is hard, 100.7 mg/l (about 5.9 grains), chloramine-disinfected Mississippi River water. The fix: a water softener, a whole-home filter, and reverse osmosis for drinking water.

New Orleans water is hard, treated Mississippi River water disinfected with chloramine. The 2025 water report lists hardness at 100.7 milligrams per liter, about 5.9 grains per gallon, chloramine at 3.3 parts per million, and total trihalomethanes at 28 parts per billion.

What's in your New Orleans water

Your water reportNew Orleans

Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans (Carrollton) · PWS ID LA1071009 · 2025 water quality report

Chloramine, the disinfectant · a chemical taste or odor that can be faint or easy to missCatalytic carbon takes it out at every tap

TTHMs at 28 ppb · disinfection byproducts documented in the published reportCatalytic carbon reduces certain disinfection byproducts

Hard water at 100.7 mg/L · scale builds inside water heaters, fixtures, and water-using appliancesA dedicated water softener handles the hardness

Here is what is actually in your New Orleans water. It is treated Mississippi River water, so it needs the full stack: softener, carbon, and reverse osmosis.Ottie, your water guide.

What we'd install

Here is your system: two dedicated treatment tanks, a water softener for the hardness and a separate catalytic-carbon filter for the chloramine and byproducts, plus certified reverse osmosis at the kitchen sink for the water you drink and cook with.

**Whole-home filter**Catalytic carbon for chlorine and chloramine

**Reverse osmosis**Drinking water at the kitchen sink

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What this does for your home

Chloramine reduced throughout the house
Filtered water for showers, faucets, coffee, tea, and cooking
Certified reverse osmosis for the water you drink and cook with
Hardness removed before it can keep building scale

Cutaway of a water heater with sediment settled at the bottom

Scale is hard on your water heater

Hard water leaves scale that lowers water heater efficiency and shortens its life. In lab testing, tankless heaters run on hard water failed from scale in under two years, while the same units on softened water kept running.

U.S. Dept. of Energy (PNNL-22921, 2013); Battelle for the Water Quality Research Foundation, 2010 (industry-funded).

Source: Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans (Carrollton) annual water quality report. PWS ID LA1071009, verifiable in the EPA Safe Drinking Water database →Figures are as published by the system; see the original report for sampling methods and ranges.Get my written plan and price →

Get your New Orleans water plan and price

You just read what is in New Orleans water. Tell us where to send the plan for fixing it.

The public recordResolved, with enforcement orders on file

EPA shows the New Orleans Carrollton plant cleared a surface-water treatment violation in early 2025, and lists two formal state compliance orders, from 2023 and 2024. The city also issued a boil-water advisory across the east bank in August 2024 after a pressure loss at the plant. The violation is resolved; the orders and advisory are part of the record.

EPA ECHO. Public records, current as of August 2026. They update quarterly. Operators: contact us to correct an error.

How we work in New Orleans

We pull the published report for the system that actually serves your address, put the recommendation and the exact price in writing before any work starts, and a licensed plumber does the install. Your neighborhood's report decides which pieces your home's package needs.

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