Water filter service in Reading, PA

What is in the water in Reading

Reading is served by City of Reading Water Authority .

Source water: Lake Ontelaunee, a 1,082 acre manmade lake about six miles north of the city, created in 1926 by damming Maiden Creek and owned by the City of Reading. It holds 3.88 billion gallons and supplies roughly 15 million gallons a day to greater Reading. The lake drains a 216 square mile catchment known as the Maiden Creek watershed. Maiden Creek itself forms where the Ontelaunee and Kistler creeks meet at Kempton, is joined by the Sacony Creek at Virginville, and is the second largest tributary of the Schuylkill River. Because the lake is a drinking water reservoir rather than a recreational one, boating and swimming are not permitted on it. Being fed by a single reservoir rather than a blend means the water reaching Reading is relatively consistent day to day, with the variation coming seasonally rather than from switching sources. Reported by Borough of Hamburg for 2024.

The single most useful fact about this supply is what the watershed is used for. Roughly 58 percent of the Maiden Creek catchment is agricultural and about 39 percent is forested. An agricultural watershed is a nitrate conversation in a way a forested one is not, because fertiliser and manure applied upstream move readily through soil into surface water and concentrations rise after heavy rain. Nitrate is also the contaminant where household treatment choices go most often wrong: boiling concentrates it rather than removing it, and neither a carbon filter nor a softener touches it. Reverse osmosis does. If you have an infant in the house, that distinction is the one worth knowing, and the current city report is where to find the measured figure.

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 Reading

PFAS in Reading

For this catchment the likelier water quality story is agricultural rather than industrial, and it has already been described above: nitrate from fertiliser and manure moving off farmland into surface water. Alongside that sit the seasonal taste and odour changes any reservoir shows as biological activity rises and falls through the year. Those are aesthetic rather than health matters, and a carbon filter at the drinking tap deals with them for very little money. Confirm the current PFAS figure in the city report before treating for it specifically. Installing media against a contaminant the monitoring does not show means paying for replacement cartridges indefinitely with nothing measurable in return, and on this supply the nitrate question is the one more likely to deserve your attention.

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 Reading

• 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

• Options for renters
• Co-ops and condos
• Offices and commercial sites

Local programmes

• Lake Ontelaunee watershed protection. The reservoir is closed to boating and swimming because it is a drinking water source rather than a recreational lake. Upstream land use across the 216 square mile Maiden Creek catchment is what most affects the water reaching Reading taps.

Nearby areas

• Lancaster, PA , Lancaster County
• Allentown, PA , Lehigh County
• Bethlehem, PA , Northampton County

Sources

• Berks Nature, 2024.
• Borough of Hamburg, 2024.
• Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, 2025.
• Population: US Census Bureau sub-county population estimates, Vintage 2024 (POPESTIMATE2024).