Is Minneapolis, MN Tap Water Safe to Drink?

Where Does Minneapolis Get Its Water?

Minneapolis, MN gets its drinking water from a surface water source, supplied primarily by Minneapolis Water Works, the city's main public water system. A smaller system, Saint Anthony Village, also serves a portion of the area under its own utility.

The water supply is treated at multiple facilities. Treatment Plant 1 and Treatment Plant 1 in Fridley handle a significant share of the city's water, with Treatment Plant 2 in Columbia Heights serving as an additional treatment site.

Together these plants process water before it reaches taps across the metro area. The two utilities, Minneapolis Water Works and Saint Anthony Village's system, operate independently but draw from the same regional surface water supply.

How Is Minneapolis Tap Water Treated?

Minneapolis water goes through several treatment steps before it reaches your tap. These include coagulation and flocculation to remove suspended particles, filtration through granular activated carbon to reduce organic compounds and certain contaminants, membrane filtration for additional particle removal, and powdered activated carbon as a supplemental step.

For disinfection, the system uses free chlorine along with additional disinfectant treatment to control bacteria and viruses throughout the distribution network. This keeps the water microbiologically safe from the plant all the way to your faucet.

The combination of granular activated carbon and membrane filtration is notable because those technologies also provide some reduction of PFAS compounds and other trace organics, though they do not eliminate them entirely at these treatment scales.

What's in Minneapolis Tap Water?

The most widely detected substances in recent EPA samples are PFAS compounds, a group of synthetic chemicals, and lithium, a naturally occurring element. PFAS were found across all 21 ZIP codes tested. The PFAS compound PFBA had the highest measured level at 0.016 micrograms per liter, which is below current EPA health benchmarks. Lithium was detected at up to 9 micrograms per liter, also below its non-regulatory health reference level.

Three other PFAS compounds were also detected: PFTrDA at up to 0.007 micrograms per liter, HFPO-DA at up to 0.005 micrograms per liter, and 6:2 FTS at up to 0.005 micrograms per liter. All were found across all 21 ZIP codes sampled, and none exceeded EPA health reference levels or enforceable federal maximum contaminant levels.

PFAS are a broad family of industrial chemicals that have been used in products ranging from nonstick cookware to firefighting foam. They can enter surface water supplies through industrial discharge and runoff. Lithium occurs naturally in some source waters and is not a manufactured contaminant.

Health Risk Profile for Minneapolis

None of the substances detected in Minneapolis tap water exceeded enforceable federal drinking-water limits as of the most recent EPA samples from October 2024. Lithium has no federal maximum contaminant level; its 9 micrograms per liter measurement is evaluated only against a non-regulatory health reference level, which it did not exceed. The detected PFAS levels similarly fall below EPA health reference benchmarks.

Infants, pregnant individuals, and people with compromised immune systems are generally more sensitive to trace contaminants at lower exposure levels. For these groups, the presence of any PFAS in tap water, even below current benchmarks, may warrant extra caution, particularly given that the science on long-term low-level PFAS exposure is still evolving.

If you want additional protection, a filter certified to NSF/ANSI 58 (reverse osmosis) or NSF/ANSI P473 is the most effective choice for reducing PFAS compounds. NSF/ANSI certification is an independent third-party label, meaning a qualified outside organization has verified the filter's performance claims. Look for that label on the product box or the manufacturer's website.

EPA considers the detected PFAS levels in Minneapolis water to be low, and the system is in compliance with current federal rules. That said, federal PFAS standards are relatively new and regulations continue to be updated as research advances, so it is reasonable to monitor future water quality reports.