Water Quality Wire ranked 12 engine/data/water towns in lead, sorted by severity score. Every number below comes straight from the source data, not an estimate.
1. 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...
2. 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...
3. 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...
4. 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,...
5. 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...
6. 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...
7. 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...
8. 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...
9. Labadie (Franklin County, MO)
Severity score: 8
If you live in Labadie, your water is VERY HARD - about 18 grains per gallon of dissolved rock straight out of the ground. That is the chalky film on your faucets and shower glass, the soap and shampoo that never lather, the dull film on your skin and hair, the spots on every dish, and the scale quietly choking your...
10. Pacific (Franklin County, MO)
Severity score: 8
Pacific runs entirely on groundwater wells, and that water is VERY hard at about 19 grains per gallon - that is the chalky scale crusting your faucets and shower glass, the film that leaves your skin tight and your hair dull and straw-like, and the mineral buildup quietly cooking your water heater to an early death....
11. St. Clair (Franklin County, MO)
Severity score: 8
St. Clair water is hard - about 14.6 grains a gallon in town, and a brutal 18 grains out on the county district. That is the chalky white crust on your faucets and shower glass, the film that leaves your skin tight and itchy and your hair flat and straw-like, the soap that never really rinses, and the scale silently...
12. Sullivan (Franklin County (straddles the Franklin/Crawford County line), MO)
Severity score: 8
Sullivan's city water comes straight out of deep dolomite wells at roughly 13 grains per gallon - hard enough that you can watch it happen: chalky white scale crusting your faucets and showerheads, spotty glassware, soap and shampoo that won't lather, and a water heater quietly choking on mineral buildup years before...