Newark's water is soft at 52.6 mg/L, but the airport, port and turnpike corridors lay down a continuous oily particulate, and winter adds road salt.
Newark's water comes from protected reservoirs in the New Jersey Highlands and is soft, so the tap leaves little behind; the grime is oily particulate from the airport, port and turnpike corridors, plus winter road salt. April and the stretch from August to October give Newark its best washing weather. Port and airport commercial work is the steady business here, while a single-story home exterior runs $300 to $510.
Newark draws a protected upland reservoir system in the New Jersey Highlands, which is crystalline rock rather than limestone, the kind of source that yields soft water. The Pequannock result reprinted by the Passaic Valley Water Commission is 52.6 mg/L; much higher figures quoted online get both the geology and the source type wrong. That is soft water, and tap rinsing leaves little behind.
Figures by plant, as reported.
| Hardness | 52.6 mg/L as CaCO₃ No band label published; 52.6 mg/L is soft on the USGS ladder. |
|---|---|
| pH | 7.62 |
| Alkalinity | 34 mg/L as CaCO₃ |
| Iron | 0.0069 mg/L |
| Manganese | 0.0385 mg/L |
| Sodium | 21.6 mg/L |
| Chloride | 35.3 mg/L |
| Total dissolved solids | 99.4 mg/L |
| Disinfectant | free chlorine |
| Source and treatment | The Pequannock watershed, a protected upland reservoir system in the New Jersey Highlands; SDWIS codes the system as surface water · Permanganate, coagulation and mixed-media filtration with pre and post hypochlorination, then post pH adjustment and silicate and orthophosphate corrosion inhibitors, per the EPA SDWIS federal record · No softening step. |
Not in the report: corrosion index.
SOURCE · Passaic Valley Water Commission 2026 Consumer Confidence Report, reprinting City of Newark Pequannock system secondary results, PWSID NJ0714001, with the EPA SDWIS federal treatment record · How we source these numbers
Metropolitan particulate rather than mineral sets the interval. Newark sits inside one of the densest transport corridors in the country — the airport, the port, the turnpike and the rail lines — and the film that settles on glass here is oily and continuous rather than seasonal. Road salt then runs its own winter cycle on lower panes from December into March.
NEW JERSEY SEASON BY SEASON →Newark draws the Pequannock, a protected upland reservoir system on Highlands crystalline rock, and its secondary results, reprinted by the Passaic Valley Water Commission, give hardness at 52.6 mg/L; higher figures quoted online describe limestone bedrock and an aquifer, neither of which applies. Metropolitan particulate rather than mineral sets the interval here: airport, port, turnpike and rail put a continuous oily film on glass that needs a surfactant step. Brick-row geometry removes ladder setback and makes access the cost.
Newark draws the Pequannock system, a protected upland reservoir supply in the New Jersey Highlands. That is Precambrian gneiss and granite rather than limestone, and reservoir water from crystalline rock is typically soft. Newark's own results, reprinted by the Passaic Valley Water Commission, put hardness at 52.6 mg/L — soft, as the rock predicts.
Some figures quoted online for Newark come with claims that the watershed flows through limestone bedrock and that the minerals come from an aquifer. Neither is true of the Pequannock, an upland reservoir system on crystalline rock, so those figures do not describe this supply.
Metropolitan particulate rather than mineral is what actually loads the glass. The airport, the port, the turnpike and the rail corridor put a continuous oily film on surfaces here, and it does not wait for a season — a detergent chosen for spotting will spread it rather than lift it.
The Ironbound's dense brick row stock sits flat to the pavement with no setback, so upper-floor glass is pole work or rigged work rather than ladder work, and parking on those streets consumes real time between jobs.
Forest Hill's mansion district carries substantial original glazing on a scale unusual for the city, and that stock is the conservation end of the market — irreplaceable glass in original sash where a blade finds the high spots first.
Winter road salt runs its own cycle on lower panes from December into March, and because the supply itself is soft, chloride film is effectively the main mineral a Newark cleaner deals with all year.
Airport and port-adjacent commercial work is the stable book, with institutional and quarterly contracts and access that has to be arranged rather than assumed. On the residential side, rowhouse and brick-row geometry removes ladder setback, so upper-floor work is pole or rigged work and access rather than area sets the day.
Soft upland water means tap rinsing works, so the water is not the reason to hire anyone. The reasons are the film and the stock: diesel and industrial particulate needs a surfactant step that a domestic cleaner will only smear, and the Ironbound's dense brick rows and the Forest Hill mansion district carry original glazing with no setback for a ladder on one side and irreplaceable glass on the other.
OPEN COST ESTIMATOR →2025 annual mean at the IS 52 monitor, IS 52 681 Kelly ST, 25 km north-east of the city (EPA site 36-005-0110).
2025 annual mean at the Elizabeth Lab monitor, NJ Turnpike Interchange 13 Toll Plaza, 9.7 km south of the city (EPA site 34-039-0004).
Largest air release: Richards Manufacturing Co, 517 Lyons AVE (other), 0.2 km outside the city limits, 48,000 lb in 2024.
Newark can proclaim a water-shortage emergency, which binds all water users once it is filed with the city clerk and published, and at all times building owners must repair fixtures to prevent water waste.
Newark Code §33:1-2: proclamation effective upon filing and publication · Newark Code §33:1-7: owner's duty to repair water fixtures · checked September 2026
No one may spill, dump or dispose of litter, solid waste or liquid pollutants into Newark's municipal storm sewer system; only stormwater and a short list of exempt flows may enter it.
Newark Code §15:16-2: prohibited conduct · Newark Code §15:16-3: exceptions to prohibition · checked September 2026
Newark permits no use that would demolish, relocate or alter a designated historic building, structure or site, or property in a historic district, in a way that harms its character unless the city's historic preservation rules are met.
Newark Code §41:10-5-3: compliance required · checked September 2026
Heavy road salting in North and Central Jersey produces an aerosolized salt mist that deposits on ground-floor glass and corrodes aluminum and steel sash hardware over time. South Jersey is lighter on salting but the shore counties see substantial salt aerosol from the Atlantic year-round.
Newark draws a protected upland reservoir system in the New Jersey Highlands, which is crystalline rock rather than limestone, the kind of source that yields soft water. The Pequannock result reprinted by the Passaic Valley Water Commission is 52.6 mg/L; much higher figures quoted online get both the geology and the source type wrong.
Residential window cleaning in Newark typically runs $10–15 per pane or $300–510 for a standard single-story exterior. Airport and port-adjacent commercial work is the stable book, with institutional and quarterly contracts and access that has to be arranged rather than assumed.
Newark's drier, frost-free months are April and August to October, by NOAA's 1991–2020 normals for the Newark International Airport station, where May brings the most rain. The calendar on this page marks August (after the April 23 bloom) and October (after smoke season and before frost). Frost nights usually run from November 10 to April 2.
Usually yes: City of Newark Water Department / Pequannock System publishes dissolved solids of 99.4 mg/L, low enough that tap-rinsed glass tends to dry clean. Iron, manganese, sodium and chloride all sit under this site's flags (highest: manganese up to 0.0385 mg/L). It draws on the Pequannock watershed, a protected upland reservoir system in the New Jersey Highlands.
In Newark the dominant residue patterns include continuous oily particulate from airport, port and turnpike corridors and winter road-salt aerosol on lower panes. Metropolitan particulate rather than mineral sets the interval.
Soft upland water means tap rinsing works, so the water is not the reason to hire anyone. The reasons are the film and the stock: diesel and industrial particulate needs a surfactant step that a domestic cleaner will only smear, and the Ironbound's dense brick rows and the Forest Hill mansion district carry original glazing with no setback for a ladder on one side and…
Pre-1920 commercial core; institutional and corporate-campus commercial work. Ironbound and Forest Hill have their own housing stock and glazing as well.
Just over the New Jersey line