Service area · PA
Water filter service in Allentown, PA
Testing, installation, and service for homes and businesses in Allentown, Lehigh County. What follows is what we can source about the water here.
What is in the water in Allentown
Allentown is served by Lehigh County Authority .
Source water: An unusual half-and-half split between groundwater and surface water. Schantz Spring and Crystal Spring are groundwater sources and together meet roughly half of demand. The other half is surface water, mostly from the Little Lehigh Creek, with groundwater wells and the Lehigh River making up the rest across the wider authority area. Crystal Spring produces at a fairly steady rate and feeds a collection system immediately next to the treatment plant. The creek intake is regulated rather than unlimited: flows are measured at a federal gauge just downstream, and the water supply permit requires at least 16 cubic feet per second to pass the intake or withdrawals have to be cut back. That matters in a dry summer, because it means the surface half of the supply is legally capped by how much water is in the creek. Reported by Lehigh County Authority for 2024.
Around 21 million gallons a day is drawn from Allentown division sources and treated at a full-scale filtration plant in the city, running coagulation, flocculation, settling, filtration and chemical addition. On average the authority supplies about 24.5 million gallons a day to Allentown and the suburban customers around it. The blend of spring water and creek water is the thing worth understanding as a customer: groundwater and surface water carry different mineral content and respond differently through the year, so taste and hardness here are less constant than on a system fed from a single reservoir. If you are choosing equipment on the basis of one test taken in one season, take a second reading at a different time of year before committing to anything sized on the first.
These figures describe the distribution system. Your own tap can differ, and for lead it very likely does.
We do not yet hold a sourced figure for every field on this page. Where something is missing it is left blank rather than estimated, because an unsourced number here would look like information.
Buildings and plumbing in Allentown
PFAS in Allentown
A supply that is half groundwater behaves differently from a purely surface one, because a single affected well can move a blended average in a way a large reservoir cannot. That argues for reading the results at the specific sources feeding your address rather than the system-wide summary. One further point applies across this part of the state and catches people out: Pennsylvania is one of very few states with no statewide construction standards for private water wells, and the environmental department does not regulate them at all. If any part of your property draws on a private well rather than the authority's mains, nothing in the public reporting covers that water and only your own laboratory test will tell you what is in it.
Source: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, 2025. More on confirming and treating this on our PFAS page.
What this means in practice
- Chlorine and chloramine taste. Confirm with free and total chlorine test strip, plus the utility report for the disinfectant type.
- PFAS. Confirm with certified laboratory analysis using an epa-approved pfas method.
Filters that apply here
- PFAS reduction systems. Reverse osmosis or a certified activated carbon system aimed at per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
- Under-sink carbon filters. A carbon block cartridge on the cold line under the sink.
- Reverse osmosis, tank. A membrane system under the sink that produces treated water to a dedicated tap and stores it in a small pressure tank.
- Whole-house filtration. A filter plumbed into the main line where water enters the building, so every tap, shower, and appliance downstream is fed treated water.
- Sediment filters. A mechanical filter that captures sand, silt, rust flakes, and other particles.
Installation in Allentown
- Free water testing. Typically 45 to 60 minutes.
- Whole-house filter installation. Typically 3 to 5 hours.
- Under-sink reverse osmosis installation. Typically 2 to 4 hours.
- Repair, any brand. Typically 1 to 3 hours.
Renters, co-ops, and businesses
Nearby areas
- Bethlehem, PA , Northampton County
- Reading, PA , Berks County
- Upper Darby, PA , Delaware County
- Philadelphia, PA , Philadelphia County
- Scranton, PA , Lackawanna County
- Lancaster, PA , Lancaster County
Sources
- Lehigh County Authority, 2024.
- Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, 2025.
- Population: US Census Bureau sub-county population estimates, Vintage 2024 (POPESTIMATE2024).
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