Newport News glass on the eastern and southern edges takes Chesapeake Bay and James River salt aerosol, and water averages 69 mg/L, range 63 to 75.
Newport News water is moderately hard at the gentle end, so the tap barely matters; salt blowing in off the Chesapeake Bay and the James River onto the eastern and southern edges does. Waterfront homes need more frequent rinsing, and April, June, September and October are the best months. Hilton Village's heritage glazing is priced on careful pacing, while a typical single-story exterior runs $260 to $440.
Published and verifiable. Waterworks reports a 2025 average of 69 mg/L as calcium carbonate with a range of 63 to 75, and describes its treated water as moderately hard at 4 to 6 grains, citing the American Society of Engineers bands. In practice that is a supply that will spot if left to dry but will not scale aggressively, and the lime in the train is there for pH and corrosion control rather than to remove hardness. The figure applies identically in Hampton, Poquoson, York County and the Grove District of James City County, because it is one treated supply.
| Hardness | 63–75 mg/L as CaCO₃ Averaging 69 mg/L; moderately hard — 4 to 6 grains, in the operator's own words, as published by Newport News Waterworks. |
|---|---|
| pH | 7.2 (range 7.2–8.2) |
| Alkalinity | 41 mg/L as CaCO₃ (range 39–43) |
| Iron | 0.006 mg/L (range 0.005–0.015) |
| Manganese | 0.014 mg/L (range 0.001–0.036) |
| Sodium | 12.6 mg/L (range 12.4–12.8) |
| Chloride | 17 mg/L (range 16.9–17) |
| Total dissolved solids | 120 mg/L (range 109–131) |
| Disinfectant | chloramine |
| Source and treatment | Surface water: the Diascund Creek Reservoir as the primary source, supplemented by the Chickahominy River above Walkers Dam as weather dictates, pumped and transferred through pipes to the utility's reservoirs for storage and treated at plants including Lee Hall · Screening, then aluminium sulfate (alum) and polymer for coagulation, clarification, ozone for primary disinfection, filtration, lime to adjust pH, fluoride, zinc orthophosphate for corrosion control, and finally chloramines as the secondary disinfectant · No softening step. |
Not in the report: corrosion index.
SOURCE · City of Newport News Waterworks, 2025 Annual Water Quality Report (Combined), '2025 Miscellaneous Analyses of Finished Water at Water Treatment Plant' table and the secondary-parameter table, with the 'How We Treat Your Water' section (nnva.gov/DocumentCenter/View/37965). Reviewed and approved by the Virginia Department of Health, Southeast Field Office of Drinking Water. Newport News is the operating city. · How we source these numbers
Mineral spotting is mild and steady year-round. The seasonal driver is salt: marine aerosol runs continuously with a winter storm peak, and spring brings the Mid-Atlantic tree and grass pollen wave. Waterfront addresses realistically need a shorter interval than inland ones in the same city, and the best-holding residential windows are late spring after pollen drops and early autumn before the storm season builds.
VIRGINIA SEASON BY SEASON →Newport News has the operator's own published number to work from: 69 mg/L average, range 63 to 75, from Waterworks' 2025 report, and moderately hard by the utility's own characterisation. That is the utility's own characterisation of its own treated water rather than an inference drawn from a table. With mineral load modest and tap sodium very low at 11.0 mg/L, the variable that actually governs a Newport News route is marine aerosol off the Bay and the James, heaviest downtown and along the southern waterfront and lightest up in Denbigh. The commercial book leans on the shipyard rather than on retail seasonality, and Hilton Village's pre-1920 glazing is the one part of the city that has to be worked by hand.
Newport News Waterworks publishes its hardness, which makes this one of the few cities on this site where the number can be quoted to a customer as the operator's own. The 2025 report gives an average of 69 mg/L as calcium carbonate with a range of 63 to 75, and the utility characterises its treated water as moderately hard at 4 to 6 grains. At an average of 69 the supply sits in the moderately-hard band rather than the hard band above it, and that reading is the operator's own.
Waterworks is a regional provider, not a city department serving only its own residents. One treatment operation supplies five jurisdictions — Newport News, Hampton, Poquoson, York County and part of James City County — so a crew working the Peninsula is working one water chemistry across the whole route, and a quote written for Newport News glass holds in Hampton without adjustment.
The supply is not the reservoir list that gets repeated locally. The utility's own description is that the primary source is surface water from the Diascund Creek Reservoir, supplemented by the Chickahominy River above Walkers Dam as dictated by weather patterns, with water transferred into five company-owned reservoirs for storage before reaching two treatment plants. The Chickahominy is the part usually left out, and it is the part that makes the raw supply weather-dependent.
Lime is in the treatment train, but for pH and corrosion control rather than softening. The sequence Waterworks describes runs screens, then alum and polymer for coagulation, clarification, ozone for primary disinfection, filtration, lime for pH adjustment, fluoride, zinc orthophosphate as a corrosion inhibitor, and chloramines as the secondary disinfectant carried through the pipe network. Ozone plus chloramines is an unusual pairing for a system this size and it keeps chlorinous odour low on interior work.
Sodium in the treated water averaged 11.0 mg/L in 2024 with a range of 10.7 to 11.4 — genuinely low, and worth knowing because it separates what the supply contributes from what the air does. On the Peninsula the salt on the glass is marine aerosol off the Chesapeake Bay and the James, not sodium delivered through the tap.
The Virginia Department of Health rated Waterworks' surface sources as relatively high in susceptibility to contamination in its 2020 assessment, which the utility publishes and explains as a reason treatment matters rather than as a warning. Under the fifth round of unregulated contaminant monitoring the system detected PFOS at a maximum of 6.1 parts per trillion, against a federal limit for PFOS finalised in 2024 at 4.0 parts per trillion.
Newport News Shipbuilding anchors an institutional and contractor commercial book that is larger than the city's residential population would predict, and it runs to a yard schedule rather than a seasonal one. Hilton Village, the first federally planned community in the United States, holds pre-1920 stock with substantial original glazing — scrapers stay in the bag there.
Newport News prices on distance from the water first and glazing era second. Waterfront and downtown work carries a rinse-volume and interval premium; Hilton Village prices on heritage pacing and hand work; Port Warwick and the newer mixed-use stock price on height and access; Denbigh runs as standard suburban production. The shipyard contractor book is priced on frequency and route density rather than per pane.
Denbigh and Hidenwood homeowners can maintain their own glass without much difficulty given the modest mineral load. Hilton Village should not be a DIY job — original glazing and painted sash punish improvised tools. Waterfront and downtown frontage is worth hiring out for the rinse volume alone, and the Port Warwick coated units are where a wrong chemical choice costs a unit rather than a wash.
OPEN COST ESTIMATOR →2025 annual mean at the Nasa Langley Research Center monitor, Adjacent to Building 1196, Wythe Landing Loop, Nasa-Langley Research Center, 12.4 km east of the city (EPA site 51-650-0008).
Largest air release: Ball Metal Beverage Container Corp, 8935 Pocahontas Trail James River Commerce Center (fabricated metals), 1.7 km outside the city limits, 563,208 lb in 2024.
Newport News declares drought stages for its waterworks: at Stage 2, a drought warning, customers are asked to voluntarily give up non-essential uses such as washing down streets, sidewalks, walkways and driveways. A declared drought emergency brings its own water rates and penalties.
Newport News City Code §42-94: Stage 2, drought warning · Newport News City Code §42-96: water rates and penalties during declared drought emergency · checked September 2026
In Newport News it is a violation to discharge sewage, industrial wastes or other wastes into the city's storm sewer system, or onto driveways, sidewalks, parking lots or any other area that drains to it.
Newport News City Code §37.1-22: violations and penalties · checked September 2026
Newport News has a Hilton Village Architectural Review Board with power to review every building and construction plan for the Hilton Village Historical Zoning District, whatever other law says.
Newport News Charter §16.01: creation of the Hilton Village Architectural Review Board · checked September 2026
Pine, oak, and grass pollen wave through the metro and the Piedmont. Standard wet-only handling.
Published and verifiable. Waterworks reports a 2025 average of 69 mg/L as calcium carbonate with a range of 63 to 75, and describes its treated water as moderately hard at 4 to 6 grains, citing the American Society of Engineers bands.
Residential window cleaning in Newport News typically runs $8–13 per pane or $260–440 for a standard single-story exterior. Newport News prices on distance from the water first and glazing era second.
Newport News's drier, frost-free months are April, June and September and October, by NOAA's 1991–2020 normals for the Newport News International Airport station. The calendar on this page marks April (after the March 30 bloom), September (after smoke season) and October (before frost). Frost nights usually run from November 9 to April 1.
Yes, if the rinse is squeegeed off before it dries: Newport News Waterworks publishes dissolved solids of 120 mg/L, between this site's two dissolved-solids flags. Iron, manganese, sodium and chloride all sit under this site's flags (highest: manganese up to 0.014 mg/L). It draws on surface water: the Diascund Creek Reservoir as the primary source.
In Newport News the dominant residue patterns include chesapeake bay and james river salt aerosol, heaviest on the eastern and southern edges and moderate mineral load — 69 mg/l average, 63 to 75 range, published by the operator. Mineral spotting is mild and steady year-round.
Denbigh and Hidenwood homeowners can maintain their own glass without much difficulty given the modest mineral load. Hilton Village should not be a DIY job — original glazing and painted sash punish improvised tools.
Pre-1920 planned-village stock built for shipyard workers, with a high survival rate of original glazing. Hand work, no blades, and conservation pacing on street elevations. Downtown / Washington Avenue and Port Warwick have their own housing stock and glazing as well.
Just over the Virginia line