Hanover's groundwater naturally carries dissolved iron and manganese. Left untreated, these minerals oxidize and can discolor water, stain fixtures, and affect taste. It's the reason the town operates three separate treatment plants — Beal, Pond Street, and Broadway — built specifically to filter these minerals out before water reaches your tap.
PFAS ("per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances") are a family of manufactured chemicals used for decades in nonstick, waterproof, and stain-resistant products. They break down extremely slowly in the environment, which is why they're nicknamed "forever chemicals," and why they now show up in trace amounts in water systems across the country — including Hanover's.
Every water utility publishes an annual Consumer Confidence Report listing every contaminant it tested for, the detected range, and the legal limit. The most useful column is usually the one comparing your utility's result to the health-based goal, not just the legal limit — those two numbers aren't always the same thing.
If your home is on a private well rather than town water, none of the municipal testing above applies to you directly. Massachusetts DEP recommends private well owners test independently, since well water isn't subject to Safe Drinking Water Act monitoring requirements — and private wells can have their own iron/manganese or PFAS profile entirely separate from the town system.
Meeting state and federal legal limits isn't the same as being contaminant-free, and it doesn't address aesthetic issues like iron/manganese staining or taste. Households with young children, pregnant family members, or immunocompromised individuals often choose to filter regardless of a utility's compliance status.
In general terms, a few filtration approaches address most of what shows up in Hanover's water:
Effective against chlorine taste and odor, many disinfection byproducts, and some PFAS compounds, depending on the specific carbon media and contact time. Common in pitcher filters, faucet-mount units, and whole-house systems — this is the same class of treatment (GAC) Hanover itself uses at Pond Street.
The most thorough option for PFAS, nitrates, and a broad range of dissolved contaminants, including residual iron and manganese. Typically installed under a kitchen sink for drinking and cooking water specifically.
Water softener/oxidizing filter combinations address staining and metallic taste at the point where water enters the home — useful for households noticing discoloration even after town-level treatment.