Is SALEM WATER DEPT's water safe to drink?
SALEM WATER DEPT has a health-based violation on record, but none in the last five years - an older issue, not necessarily a current one. Population served: 21,000, over 6,953 connections.
Ranked against every other system in this dataset
SALEM WATER DEPT has 11 violations on record in total, 3 of thems health-based - ranking it 5,231th of 12,903 systems by violation count, the 59th percentile nationally.
How SALEM WATER DEPT compares within NH
NH's 62 covered systems average 8.6 health-based violations each; SALEM WATER DEPT carries 3, not more than typical for the state. The clean-record guide covers what a comparison like this can hide.
Most recent violation on record
The last violation EPA has on record for SALEM WATER DEPT is from 2024-01-04 (health-based: 2003-01-01). Last reported to EPA: 06/23/2026.
What kind of problem, specifically
SALEM WATER DEPT's flagged contaminants and rule violations, grouped by what they actually mean for a filter choice rather than left as EPA's raw code list:
- Microbial contamination / treatment technique - flagged from: Surface Water Treatment Rule
- Disinfection byproducts - flagged from: TTHM
The most severe category on record is microbial contamination / treatment technique, which points toward a microbial-class filter if you want to address it directly.
What this data is and is not
SALEM WATER DEPT's numbers here come from its own required reporting to EPA under the Safe Drinking Water Act, not from an independent test of your glass of water. Water quality can still change between the meter and the faucet - household plumbing sits outside what a record of 11 logged violations can see. The guide to what this data misses covers that gap.