Prince George's County tap water: hardness, PFAS and lead

Prince George's County, Maryland has about 966,629 residents (Census 2024 estimate) and 4 community water systems in EPA records. The largest local system is City of Bowie, serving about 25,000 people from groundwater.

! 2 of 4 largest systems with health-based violationsPFAS detected at 0 of 1 sampled systemsHardness 4.1 gpg (low confidence)

Public-record figures, not a test of your tap. Not 100% accurate or guaranteed. Confirm with a water test, your utility or a qualified pro before you buy or act.

How hard is Prince George's County water?

City of Bowie Estimate: untreated local water, not your tap · Low confidence

4.1 gpg (71 mg/L), moderately hard

Prince George's County: median of 387 results from 123 monitoring sites (streams and wells). Utilities may blend or treat water, so your tap can differ.

Source: Hard Water Map county data, samples through 2016

County estimates: Hard Water Map (hardwatermap.com), CC BY 4.0, derived from the USGS/EPA Water Quality Portal; file generated 2026-07-22. License

Public-record figures, not a test of your tap. Not 100% accurate or guaranteed. Confirm with a water test, your utility or a qualified pro before you buy or act.

Softener size at 4.1 gpg

For a 3-person home using 57 gallons per person per day and regenerating weekly, you'd remove about 4,908 grains between regenerations. Suggested size: 24,000 grain. This uses a low-confidence county estimate, so confirm with a test first.

Estimate only. Not 100% accurate or guaranteed. Confirm with a water test, your utility or a qualified pro before you buy or act.

Open the softener calculator with 4.1 gpg

Largest water systems in Prince George's County

The 4 biggest of 4 community water systems on EPA records for this county. Service areas don't follow county lines; your water bill names your provider.

City of Bowie

MD0160002 · serves about 25,000 people · Groundwater

! 1 health-based violation✓ Lead below detection✓ No PFAS detected

Lead 90th percentile: <DL (below the lab detection/reporting limit; reported as 0) (period starting 2018-01-01) Older result. Action level: 15 ppb (drops to 10 ppb on Nov 1, 2027).

EPA ECHO record

Cedarville Mobile Home Park

MD0160207 · serves about 780 people · Groundwater

✓ No health-based violations✓ Lead below action levelPFAS: not sampled

Lead 90th percentile: 1.5 ppb (period starting 2022-01-01) Older result. Action level: 15 ppb (drops to 10 ppb on Nov 1, 2027).

EPA ECHO record

Cheltenham Boys Village

MD0160003 · serves about 330 people · Groundwater

! 1 health-based violation✓ Lead below detectionPFAS: not sampled

Lead 90th percentile: <DL (below the lab detection/reporting limit; reported as 0) (period starting 2022-01-01) Older result. Action level: 15 ppb (drops to 10 ppb on Nov 1, 2027).

EPA ECHO record

Calvert Manor

MD0160004 · serves about 300 people · Groundwater

✓ No health-based violations✓ Lead below action levelPFAS: not sampled

Lead 90th percentile: 0.8 ppb (period starting 2021-01-01) Older result. Action level: 15 ppb (drops to 10 ppb on Nov 1, 2027).

EPA ECHO record

Public-record figures, not a test of your tap. Not 100% accurate or guaranteed. Confirm with a water test, your utility or a qualified pro before you buy or act.

A PFAS detection is not a violation. Federal limits (4 ppt for PFOA and PFOS) apply to running annual averages, with compliance required by 2029. In May 2026 EPA proposed extending the PFOA/PFOS deadline to 2031 and removing other PFAS limits; not final as of 2026-10-21.

Test your own tap

These are public records for whole systems. Your home's pipes, fixtures and any private well can change what you drink. A certified lab test or a hardness test strip gives you your own numbers. Then use our PFAS and lead filter selector to see which certifications to look for.

Common questions about Prince George's County water

Is tap water in Prince George's County safe to drink?

2 of the 4 largest systems here have at least one health-based violation in EPA records since October 2021 (see each system below for status). City of Bowie's most recent lead 90th percentile was below the lab detection limit (2018), below the 15 ppb action level. Public records can't guarantee what comes out of your tap, especially with older plumbing, so a home test is the surest check.

How hard is the water in Prince George's County?

There's no published utility figure in our data, but untreated local stream and well samples in Prince George's County have a median of about 4.1 grains per gallon (71 mg/L, moderately hard). That's a low-confidence estimate of source water, not your tap, so test before you buy equipment. For a 3-person home at 4.1 gpg, our softener calculator suggests a 24,000 grain unit as a starting point.

Is there PFAS in Prince George's County water?

None of the 1 sampled system listed here detected PFAS above EPA's reporting levels in UCMR 5 testing.

Which water system serves my address in Prince George's County?

Most homes are served by City of Bowie or one of the other systems listed on this page, but service areas don't follow county lines. Your water bill names your provider, and its annual Consumer Confidence Report has the full test results.

More Maryland counties

Sources for this page

Data as of October 21, 2026. Figures are copied from public records and combined with our own calculations; they can be out of date or wrong. Tapped Out isn't affiliated with any utility or the EPA. Written and reviewed by the Tapped Out team. How we calculate · All sources.