Woodbury Drinking Water Report 2025: What It Means for You

Woodbury's groundwater carries one of the most serious PFAS contamination legacies in Minnesota, the result of decades of 3M-related industrial pollution. The city's 2025 Drinking Water Report confirms PFOA in the source water at three times the new federal health limit. The water may meet today's enforceable rules, but technically compliant is not the same as clean or healthy. The good news is that you can protect your own home with proven filtration, and a free in-home water test shows you exactly what you are dealing with.

Every spring, the City of Woodbury publishes its annual Drinking Water Quality Report, also called a Consumer Confidence Report. The 2025 edition was published in May 2026. We read it closely every year, because water is the center of what we do, and because our customers in Woodbury, Lake Elmo, Afton, and across the East Metro ask us what it actually means.

Here is the honest summary from your local water team, the parts the headline does not advertise.

Where does Woodbury’s drinking water come from?

Woodbury’s water is groundwater. The city operates 20 municipal wells ranging from 380 to 540 feet deep, all drawing from the Jordan aquifer. In 2025, Woodbury residents and businesses used more than 2.69 billion gallons of water, an average of about 7.4 million gallons every day.

That deep aquifer water has two problems baked in. It is naturally hard, and it sits under one of the most studied PFAS contamination zones in the country. Both of those matter far more to your family than the report’s compliance summary suggests.

What the 2025 report really shows

The report’s opening line says no contaminants violated currently enforceable state and federal standards in 2025. That sentence is doing a lot of work, because the standard that matters most for Woodbury, the federal limit on PFAS, is still phasing into enforcement. Measured against that new health-based limit, Woodbury’s water does not look clean at all.

The 2025 report shows PFOA, one of the most studied PFAS compounds, in the source water as high as 12 parts per trillion. The new federal maximum contaminant level for PFOA is 4 parts per trillion. That is three times the limit. PFOS, a related compound, was detected up to 4.2 parts per trillion against the same 4 part per trillion limit. The report flatly states that PFOA “was detected in the city’s source water above the pending enforceable maximum contaminant level.”

This is not a paperwork technicality. The EPA and the report itself link PFOA exposure to increased risks of cardiovascular, immune, and liver effects, certain cancers including kidney and testicular cancer, and developmental effects during pregnancy and childhood. That is the contamination Woodbury families have been living with.

How serious is the PFAS problem in Woodbury?

Serious enough that the city is spending heavily to fix it. Woodbury has issued PFAS health advisories on nine of its twenty wells and built four temporary treatment facilities to treat those wells. It is now constructing a 32 million gallon per day treatment plant designed to treat water from all of its wells for PFAS, scheduled to come online in the first half of 2028.

So the city is treating the water before it reaches you, and that work is real. But “technically within the current rules” is not the same as the clean, healthy water most families think they are getting. The contamination is well documented, the new federal limits exist precisely because levels like Woodbury’s are a health concern, and the permanent fix is still two years out.

How to protect your home from PFAS

You do not have to wait until 2028. There are two proven ways to take control of your own water.

A reverse osmosis system installed under your kitchen sink removes up to 99 percent of dissolved salts, heavy metals, microplastics, chemicals, and bacteria, including PFAS. It is the most effective home-level option for the water you actually drink and cook with, and it is the system we install most often for Woodbury families.

For protection at every tap, a whole-home PFAS filtration system treats the water where it enters your house. That means filtered water at every fixture, not just the kitchen sink. A.J. Alberts installs and services both, and we will tell you honestly which one fits your home. Our full breakdown of the regional picture is in our East Metro PFAS guide.

What the report does not measure: hardness

The city report is a compliance document. It does not measure your water’s hardness, and Woodbury’s hardness is high. It can run as high as 20 grains per gallon, which is very hard water.

Hardness comes mainly from naturally occurring calcium and magnesium dissolved in the water supply. It is not a health risk, but it is what scales up your fixtures, spots your dishes, drives up your soap and detergent use, and quietly shortens the life of every water heater and appliance in your home. The report will never tell you your number. Our Minnesota hard water and softener guide explains why East Metro water is so hard and what to do about it.

How do I find out what is in my water at home?

You get it tested at the tap. A free in-home water test from our team measures your actual hardness and walks through your options, with real numbers instead of a city-wide average. There is no pressure and no commissioned salespeople, because we do not have any. You can also explore your city’s full water profile on our interactive Twin Cities water quality map, and read more about our home base on our Woodbury service page.

The bottom line

Woodbury’s water is not the clean, safe glass the compliance summary implies. It carries a heavy PFAS burden from decades of 3M pollution, with PFOA in the source water at three times the new federal health limit, and it is hard enough to wear out your appliances on top of that. The city is working on it, but the permanent fix is years away and it only addresses PFAS, not hardness.

The part you control is your own home. A reverse osmosis system gives your family clean drinking water now, a whole-home system protects every fixture, and a softener handles the hardness. Call 651-738-0580 to schedule a free water test, or stop by our Woodbury showroom at 7975 Afton Road to talk through your water with someone who reads this report every year.

Sources and Further Reading

• City of Woodbury, 2025 Drinking Water Quality Report
• City of Woodbury, Addressing PFAS in Drinking Water
• Minnesota Department of Health, drinking water protection
• U.S. EPA, PFAS drinking water standards