Healthy Home Headlines ranked 18 engine/data/water towns, sorted by severity score. Every number below comes straight from the source data, not an estimate.
1. Byrnes Mill (Jefferson County, MO)
Severity score: 9
Byrnes Mill has no city water - you're on PWSD 2 surface water, PWSD 6 wells, or your own private well, and all three carry baggage. If you're on the surface system, every shower steeps you in chlorine byproducts (TTHMs at 173x and haloacetic acids at 300x the health guideline) plus chromium-6, the "Erin Brockovich"...
2. De Soto (Jefferson County, MO)
Severity score: 9
De Soto tap water is VERY HARD - about 21 grains per gallon, roughly three times the level where damage starts. That is the chalky film on your shower glass, the spots you can't wipe off the faucets, soap that won't lather, dry itchy skin, and dull, straw-feeling hair. The same scale silently coats your water heater's...
3. Silex (Lincoln County, MO)
Severity score: 9
Silex made the news for the wrong reason: its water failed the EPA on radium so badly the city handed out bottled water to every resident for nearly two years. Combined radium hit 7.7 pCi/L against a 5 limit, and the city's own report warns it can raise cancer risk over years of drinking. On top of that you are...
4. Alton (Madison County, IL)
Severity score: 8
Your tap water starts as Mississippi River water, treated with chloramine and running 9 to 19 grains hard - officially Very Hard. That is the chalky scale crusting your faucets and showerheads, the spots that won't wipe off your glasses, the film that leaves skin tight and itchy and hair dull and straw-like, and the...
5. Barnhart (Jefferson County, MO)
Severity score: 8
Barnhart's tap water is legal, but it is hard (up to 13 grains/gallon) and disinfected with chloramine, so you feel it: dry, itchy skin and dull, straw-like hair after every shower, soap that never fully lathers, chalky scale crusting your faucets and shower glass, and spotty dishes straight out of the rack. That same...
6. Bethalto (Madison County, IL)
Severity score: 8
If you live in Bethalto, you already know the story - brown water out of the tap, a metallic taste, and that gritty manganese and iron that stains your sinks, rings your toilet bowl, and leaves orange streaks on the tub. At 12-15 grains of hardness, that same water cakes scale on your faucets and shower glass, leaves...
7. Cedar Hill (Jefferson County, MO)
Severity score: 8
Cedar Hill city water runs about 18 grains per gallon - "very hard" - with high alkalinity and a pH of 8.1, so the chalky scale crusting your faucets, the soap that never rinses off, the film on your glassware, and the skin that feels tight and hair that goes brittle after every shower are not in your head - they are...
8. Defiance (St. Charles County, MO)
Severity score: 8
Your Defiance water comes from Missouri River valley wells, and it is very hard - that's the chalky white crust building on your faucets and showerheads, the soap that never rinses off, the film on your glasses, and the reason your skin feels tight and your hair goes dry and brittle. That same scale silently coats the...
9. Elsberry (Lincoln County, MO)
Severity score: 8
Elsberry's tap water passes the legal test but is hard at about 13 grains - that is the chalky scale crusting your faucets, the soap that won't lather, the spotty dishes, and the limescale quietly killing your water heater. You'll feel it as filmy skin and dry, stringy hair after every shower, and see manganese-driven...
10. Flint Hill (St. Charles County, MO)
Severity score: 8
If you're in Flint Hill, you're almost certainly fighting very hard water - up to 16.7 grains. That's the chalky film on your shower glass, the soap that won't lather, the crusty scale eating your faucets and shortening the life of your water heater, plus dry, itchy skin and dull, brittle hair after every shower. The...
11. Foley (Lincoln County, MO)
Severity score: 8
Foley sits in the Mississippi River bottoms, and bottom-land water is the worst kind for your home: hard, iron-heavy, and prone to that rotten-egg sulfur smell. Expect water that typically tests "very hard" (est. 15-25 grains/gallon) - enough to leave chalky scale on every faucet, fight your soap into a film on skin...
12. Godfrey (Madison County, IL)
Severity score: 8
If you're on Godfrey city water, you're drinking chloramine-treated Mississippi River water - that's the chemical-pool smell, the taste, and the reason rubber seals and fixtures wear out fast. It legally "passes," but it carries disinfection byproducts (TTHM and HAA5) at hundreds of times the health-based guideline,...
13. Grafton (Jersey County, IL)
Severity score: 8
Grafton's tap water comes straight off the Mississippi River - disinfected with chloramine (not chlorine), so the cheap fridge and pitcher filters barely touch it. It runs roughly 15-grain VERY HARD because the utility doesn't soften it, which means white scale crusting your faucets and glassware, soap that won't...
14. Granite City (Madison County, IL)
Severity score: 8
Granite City taps run on chloraminated Mississippi River water that lands at 14.5 grains of hardness - that is the chalky film on your shower glass, the spots on your faucets, the scale eating your water heater from the inside (hard water can cut a heater's life nearly in half). It dries out skin, leaves hair flat and...
15. High Ridge (Jefferson County, MO)
Severity score: 8
High Ridge tap water is drawn partly from the Big River - a river the EPA has Superfund-listed for over a century of lead mining. It's treated to meet legal limits, but the 2025 report shows chlorine byproducts (TTHMs) spiking to 53 ppb, roughly 350x the modern health guideline, plus lead measured as high as 361 ppb...
16. Hillsboro (Jefferson County, MO)
Severity score: 8
Hillsboro tap runs about 19 grains per gallon - rated VERY HARD. That's the chalky scale crusting your faucets and showerheads, the spots that won't wipe off your glasses, soap and shampoo that never lather, dry itchy skin and dull, brittle hair, and a water heater quietly choking on lime that dies years early. On top...
17. House Springs (Jefferson County, MO)
Severity score: 8
House Springs water depends on your street, and neither side is gentle. If you're on the local wells (PWSD No. 6), you've got VERY hard water at ~19 grains - that's the chalky film on your faucets, the spots on every glass, soap that won't lather, dry itchy skin, flat hair, and a water heater quietly dying years early...
18. Innsbrook (Warren County, MO)
Severity score: 8
Your Innsbrook water is hard - about 11 grains a gallon on the public system, and 15-25+ grains if you're on a private well. That is the chalky scale crusting your faucets and showerheads, the soap that never rinses off, the film on your glasses, and the water heater that dies years early. The public supply runs...