Memphis, Tennessee
MLGW 2025 Water Quality Report. Memphis Sands aquifer wells. Hardness average 48 ppm / 2.8 grains (range 14–150 ppm). Residual disinfectant is chlorine. No Measure S-style residential softener ban turned up.
- Hardness48 ppm / 2.8 gpg (range 14–150)
- Chlorine1.20 ppm (range 0.11–1.99)
- TTHMs9.36 ppb (range 2.06–26.69)
- HAA51.29 ppb (range 0.01–4.13)
Best match for Memphis
Whole-house carbon for chlorine
No district prohibition on a brine drain turned up in the current file.
That is chlorine. A whole-house carbon filter with an NSF/ANSI 42 chlorine claim is the usual match. A softener will not take chlorine out.
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Other options that still fit
Do not buy a softener on this supply
This supply is soft on the published numbers. A salt tank is usually the wrong box unless you are on a well or a different utility. Test the tap before you buy hardness equipment.
Under-sink reverse osmosis
The under-sink RO we actually run is Cloud RO — NSF/ANSI 58, kitchen tap, not a whole-house tank. Check the exact listing if PFAS is why you are shopping. Shop Amazon first for under-sink RO, or buy Cloud direct. Waterdrop is a tankless option if you want that path. A certifier-listed pitcher is the cheap first step. Nobody is paying for a medical claim.
Shop under-sink reverse osmosisBuy Cloud RO directShop Waterdrop reverse osmosisShop PFAS-listed pitchers
On the report
- Water utility
- Memphis Light, Gas and Water
- Hardness
- Hardness 48 ppm average (range 14–150). Also printed as 2.8 grains/gallon (range 0.8–8.8). Additional-parameters table, 2025 plant averages. — MLGW 2025 Water Quality Report
- Disinfectant
- Chlorine 1.20 ppm average (range 0.11–1.99), MRDL 4.0, on the disinfection-by-products table. A separate residual row prints Chlorine 0.86 / 0.89 (range 0.21–1.85). Narrative says approximately one part per million of chlorine. — MLGW 2025 Water Quality Report
- Brine / salt to the sewer
- No district prohibition found in current research. Searched MLGW and City of Memphis / Shelby County sewer pages and codes for a residential self-regenerating softener or brine-drain ban like LACSD Measure S. None turned up. Ask the sewer agency on the bill before you cut a brine drain.
Also around here
Extra context besides the utility report and the chart above — geology, an unregulated table, or a published study. Not a second set of printed tap numbers.
- MicroplasticsWHO’s 2019 review examined studies that found microplastic particles in treated tap and bottled water in many places. That is a published-occurrence finding, not a number from this city’s water-quality report, and we do not invent a particles-per-liter count for the tap.Microplastics in drinking-water — World Health Organization
- PFASEPA’s Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule required community systems this size to test 29 PFAS and lithium in 2023–2025. Open the UCMR 5 Data Finder for this PWS. This file does not invent a detection.Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Memphis drinking water is pumped from the Memphis Sands aquifer and delivered by Memphis Light, Gas and Water. No MLGW or City of Memphis residential softener ban like LACSD Measure S turned up. Ask the sewer agency on the bill before you cut a brine drain. This is not a legal opinion.
The 2025 Water Quality Report additional-parameters table prints hardness 48 ppm average (range 14–150), also 2.8 grains/gallon (range 0.8–8.8). Those are 2025 plant averages, not a second column we blended.
Chlorine 1.20 ppm average (range 0.11–1.99) on the disinfection-by-products table. TTHMs 9.36 ppb (range 2.06–26.69). HAA5 1.29 ppb (range 0.01–4.13). Kitchen shopping stays the Cloud RO / Waterdrop path already used on other cities if a listing is why you are looking.
Sources
- 2025 Water Quality Report — Memphis Light, Gas and Water. Accessed 2026-09-09.
Updated September 9, 2026. A city file is chemistry we can cite plus the sewer rule. No invented detections.