Is the Water Safe in Buffalo, NY?
The 2 public water systems serving Buffalo, New York (population 611,000) average a Water Safety Score of 87/100, with a worst grade of B. These systems have no health-based violations on record.
Safety & Violations
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Average Safety Score | 87/100 (B worst) |
| Public Water Systems | 2 |
| Population Served | 611,000 |
| Health Violations | 0 |
| Monitoring Violations | 0 |
| Contaminant Exceedances | 0 |
| Enforcement Actions | 13 |
Contaminants Detected in Buffalo
| Contaminant | Detected | EPA Limit (MCL) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Trihalomethanes | 40 ppb | 80 ppb | Within limit |
| Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) | 30 ppb | 60 ppb | Within limit |
| Combined Filter Effluent | 0.5 NTU | 1 NTU | Within limit |
Detected levels are the highest reported across Buffalo systems for each contaminant. MCL = EPA Maximum Contaminant Level, the legal safety ceiling. Source: EPA SDWIS monitoring data.
Frequently Asked Questions
The 2 public water systems serving Buffalo, New York (population 611,000) average a Water Safety Score of 87/100, with a worst grade of B. These systems have no health-based violations on record.
Monitoring data for Buffalo, New York shows 3 distinct contaminants detected in the public water supply — Total Trihalomethanes, Haloacetic Acids (HAA5), Combined Filter Effluent. None exceeded the EPA Maximum Contaminant Level in the reported samples.
Buffalo, New York is served by 2 public water systems, together supplying water to roughly 611,000 people. The worst safety grade among them is B.
No. In the reported monitoring data for Buffalo, no detected contaminant exceeded its EPA Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL).
The Water Safety Score (0-100, graded A-F) weighs health-based violations (40%), contaminant exceedances (30%), enforcement history (20%), and monitoring violations (10%), using EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) data from the last 10 years.
Request your utility's annual Consumer Confidence Report (CCR), consider an independent test from a state-certified lab, and use an NSF-certified filter targeting any contaminant of concern. For lead specifically, run cold water 30 seconds before drinking.
More about Buffalo
The 2 public water systems serving Buffalo, New York (population 611,000) average a Water Safety Score of 87/100, with a worst grade of B. These systems have no health-based violations on record.
This answer pulls from the EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), the authoritative federal source for U.S. public drinking-water safety. The headline number above is the direct answer; what follows is the additional context most readers need to use the answer for a real decision rather than just a fact lookup.
A practical caveat: the headline answer above reflects the most recent the EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) vintage; underlying data is often revised for months after first publication, and the right reference for any specific decision is whichever vintage is current at the time of the decision. The as-of date is stamped on every page.
Source: EPA Ground Water and Drinking Water, 2026.