Skip to main content

To our valued customers,

The City of Albany is pleased to present the 2025 Annual Water Quality Report for Albany and Millersburg.

This report provides important information about the high-quality drinking water Albany provides to homes, businesses, and industry 24 hours a day, year-round. This information is provided to you in compliance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requirements.

Albany regularly monitors the quality of our water to ensure we are producing and delivering excellent drinking water. In 2025, Albany met or exceeded all state and federal standards for safe drinking water. We place great importance on delivering excellent water and work hard to meet our goal of providing high-quality, dependable service to all our customers.

If you’re seeking more historic and specific data, more information can be found on the Oregon Health Authority’s website:

If you have any questions about this report or the City’s drinking water system, please reach out:

Scott LaRoque
Utility Superintendent
Public Works
City of Albany, Oregon

thumb wherewater

Where do we get our drinking water?

thumb contam

Regulated contaminants tables

thumb santiam

What the EPA wants you to know about contaminants in source waters

Information about lead

Lead can cause serious health problems, especially for pregnant women and young children. Lead in drinking water is primarily from materials and components associated with service lines and home plumbing. [PWS NAME] is responsible for providing high-quality drinking water and removing lead pipes, but cannot control the variety of materials used in plumbing components in your home. You share the responsibility for protecting yourself and your family from the lead in your home plumbing. You can take responsibility by identifying and removing lead materials within your home plumbing and taking steps to reduce your family's risk. Before drinking tap water, flush your pipes for several minutes by running your tap, taking a shower, doing laundry or a load of dishes. You can also use a filter certified by an American National Standards Institute accredited certifier to reduce lead in drinking water. If you are concerned about lead in your water and wish to have your water tested, contact Albany Public Works at 541-917-7600. Information on lead in drinking water, testing methods, and steps you can take to minimize exposure is available at https://www.epa.gov/safewater/lead 

Related information: 

Drinking water, including bottled water, may reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants. The presence of contaminants does not necessarily indicate that water poses a health risk. More information about contaminants and potential health effects can be obtained by calling the Environmental Protection Agency’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 800-426-4791 or at epa.gov/safewater.

The sources of drinking water (both tap water and bottled water) include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, springs and wells. As water travels over the surface of the land or through the ground, it dissolves naturally-occurring minerals and, in some cases, radioactive material, and can pick up substances resulting from the presence of animals or from human activity.

Contaminants in drinking water sources may include:

Microbial contaminants
such as viruses and bacteria, which may come from sewage treatment plants, septic systems, agricultural livestock operations, and wildlife;
Inorganic contaminants
such as salts and metals, which can be naturally-occurring or result from urban stormwater runoff, industrial or domestic wastewater discharges, oil and gas production, mining, or farming;
Pesticides and herbicides
which may come from a variety of sources such as agriculture, urban stormwater runoff, and residential uses;
Organic chemical contaminants
including synthetic and volatile organic chemicals, which are byproducts of industrial processes and petroleum production, and which can also come from gas stations, urban stormwater runoff, and septic systems;
Radioactive contaminants
which can be naturally-occurring or be the result of oil and gas production and mining activities.

In order to ensure that tap water is safe to drink, EPA prescribes regulations that limit the amount of certain contaminants in water provided by public water systems. Food and Drug Administration regulations establish limits for contaminants in bottled water that must provide the same protection for public health.

Special Notice for Immuno-compromised Persons

Some people may be more vulnerable to contaminants in drinking water than the general population. Immuno-compromised persons such as those with cancer undergoing chemotherapy or who have undergone organ transplants, people with HIV/AIDS or other immune system disorders, some elderly, and infants can be particularly at risk from infections. These people should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers. Guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on appropriate means to lessen the risk of infection by cryptosporidium and other microbial contaminants are available from the Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 800-426-4791.

The cities of Albany and Millersburg receive their drinking water from the Santiam River system through one of two water treatment plants.

amwtp

Albany-Millersburg Treatment Plant

The Albany-Millersburg treatment plant uses membrane technology to filter water from the Santiam River. Membranes are thin layers of material that separate dirt, sand, and microorganisms from water. This plant is designed to produce up to 12 million gallons of treated water per day.

vine st

Vine Street Treatment Plant

The Vine Street treatment plant uses mixed-media filter technology to treat water from the Santiam-Albany Canal supplied by the South Santiam River. Mixed-media filters are made up of different sizes of sand, anthracite coal, and garnet to attract and trap dirt, sand, and microorganisms. This plant is designed to produce up to 16 million gallons of treated water per day.

After filtration, the water is disinfected to inactivate any remaining microorganisms, the pH is adjusted to reduce corrosion of piping and plumbing components, and fluoride is added to help prevent dental cavities. The water is then ready to be distributed to our customers. The water distribution system consists of seven reservoirs, six pumping stations, and about 300 miles of pipeline that serve customers in Albany and Millersburg.

Source Waters

A Source Water Assessment Report was completed by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality in 2002 for the Santiam-Albany Canal serving the Vine Street water treatment plant. The report was updated in January 2019 and now includes the Santiam River, which serves the Albany-Millersburg water treatment plant. The report concluded that the source water may be susceptible to contamination from sediments (turbidity), microbiological sources, and nutrients. One group of contaminants that is sometimes found in surface water is pesticides or herbicides. These chemicals often run off from agricultural or residential properties and into the water. Albany has occasionally found very low levels of common pesticides in our raw water sampling, far below any levels that would impact human health. While the concentrations of these chemicals are very low, we would prefer not to find them at all and encourage anyone using pesticides or herbicides to follow label directions, avoid spraying along the banks of the canal or other waterways, and store chemicals away from surface water. Because Albany’s water is highly treated, drinking water quality impacts are not likely to occur from any of these potential contaminants.

The source water assessment documents are available upon request by calling 541-917-7600.

Illustration showing Albany watershed. For assistance, contact Public Works at 541-917-7600.

The City of Albany sampled for 90 regulated contaminants on a continuous, daily, monthly, quarterly, annual, or reduced monitoring program in 2025. The federal Environmental Protection Agency requires disclosure of any regulated contaminants that were detected in the Albany-Millersburg public water system. Where allowed to monitor less often than once a year, the City of Albany is required to report contaminants detected within the last five years.

The following tables show the regulated contaminants detected in 2025. At no time were any of the detected contaminants found to be above the maximum level allowed in drinking water (MCL).

Treatment Plants

Vine Street and Albany-Millersburg Joint Water Treatment Plants (PWS #4100012)

Microbial

ContaminantMaximum Level ReportedRange of DetectionsMCLUnit of MeasurementRecommended Health Goal (MCLG)Major SourcesDoes our water meet the standard?
Turbidity
Vine Street WTP1		 0.14 0.04 - 0.13 0.15 NTU
(TT)		 N/A Soil runoff Yes
Turbidity
AM Joint WTP1		 0.04 0.01 - 0.04 1 NTU
(TT)		 N/A Soil runoff Yes
Cryptosporidium
Vine Street WTP2		 0.016 ND - 0.01 N/A Oocyst/L N/A Human and animal waste Yes

Chemicals

ContaminantMaximum Level ReportedRange of DetectionsMCLUnit of MeasurementRecommended Health Goal (MCLG)Major SourcesDoes our water meet the standard?
Fluoride3 0.71 0.1-0.96 4 PPM 4 Additive which promotes strong teeth Yes
Total Organic Carbon (TOC)3 1.33 0.60-2.70 N/A PPM
(TT)		 N/A Naturally present in the environment Yes
Combined Radium 226/228 ND ND 5 pCi/L 0 Erosion of natural deposits Yes

 

We promote healthy living through recreational experiences and serve as stewards of Albany's public parks and facilities.

Back to Top