MeasuredWaterPrice it
Chicago, IL

Is Chicago tap water safe to drink?

CHICAGO supplies 2,721,308 people here, drawing surface water. Here is its entire federal compliance record — and, just as importantly, what that record cannot tell you.

Kitchen tap running — Chicago municipal drinking water

People served

2,721,308

CHICAGO

Source

surface water

SW

Violations on record

49

all time

Health-based

1

see below

What this page is, and what it is not

This is the federal compliance record — what EPA has cited this utility for. It is not a water quality test. A system with no violations has not been shown to be clean; it has nothing reported, which is a weaker claim than it looks. The actual measured contaminant levels are in the utility’s annual Consumer Confidence Report, which every US utility must publish and which is not in this dataset.

Health-based citations

What CHICAGO has been cited for

EPA contaminant code 5000

1 citation · 1993
The full record

Every violation, most recent first

FromContaminantWhat happenedHealth-based
2025-07-02EPA contaminant code 5200missed required reportingno
2025-05-01EPA contaminant code 0300missed monitoring or reportingno
2025-04-01EPA contaminant code 0300missed monitoring or reportingno
2025-01-01Dinosebmissed monitoring or reportingno
2024-07-01EPA contaminant code 2920missed monitoring or reportingno
2024-07-01EPA contaminant code 2920missed monitoring or reportingno
2024-07-01EPA contaminant code 2920missed monitoring or reportingno
2024-07-01EPA contaminant code 2920missed monitoring or reportingno
2021-12-30EPA contaminant code 5000missed monitoring or reportingno
2021-07-01EPA contaminant code 7000other violationno
2020-07-01EPA contaminant code 7000other violationno
2019-01-01Endrinmissed monitoring or reportingno

Showing the 12 most recent of 49. The complete record is public at EPA ECHO.

What it means for filter choice

This system has no violations on its federal record. That is not the same as clean water, and we will not pretend it is — it means nothing has been reported. It does mean there is no recorded reason here to spend money on filtration. Test your own tap first.

What filtering costs here →This utility on EPA ECHO
Test before you spend

Fourteen dollars beats a compliance record

A federal record describes a utility. It cannot describe the pipe between the main and your kitchen, which is where lead usually comes from. Your own tap is the only thing that answers your own question.

HoneForest TDS meter

HoneForest TDS meter

$13.97

4.5★ 16,400 reviews · 2,000+ bought last month

Tells you your dissolved-solids number in about four seconds, which is where every decision on this site should start.

Against it: TDS is not a safety measurement. It counts dissolved solids and cannot see lead, PFAS or bacteria. It tells you how hard your water is and whether a filter is still doing anything — nothing more. Anyone selling you a system on a TDS reading alone is misleading you.

Check price on Amazonchecked
2026-08-31
HM Digital TDS-3

HM Digital TDS-3

$13.60

4.6★ 1,800 reviews · 1,000+ bought last month

The one that has been in service vans for fifteen years. Holds calibration better than the cheap ones.

Against it: Same limitation as every TDS meter, and it looks like it was designed in 2009 because it was.

Check price on Amazonchecked
2026-08-31

Source: US EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System, retrieved 2026-08-31 from data.epa.gov. Public water system IL0316000. Nothing on this page is written by hand — if a figure is not in EPA’s response, it does not appear here. All cities.