Well water in Manchester, New Hampshire
No public well test results have been compiled for Manchester yet. The USGS national arsenic model estimates that 19% of the 0 people on private wells there draw water with arsenic above 5 ug/L, the EPA limit, based on geology, well depth and land use rather than local tests.
The strongest signal is coliform bacteria: Recommended for every private well, every year, too few samples to carry the headline but first on the test list below.
27 private wells tested 2006 to 2020 in state summaries; 7 test results across 7 contaminants from at least 1 wells, 1988 to 1989; nitrate has the most at 1. Data refreshed September 3, 2026.
Compiled by Nick at Well Water Nerd from public records. How these pages are built
Separately, a USGS and NHDES statistical model puts the chance that a bedrock well in Manchester exceeds 5 ug/L of arsenic at 19% (as low as 1% in parts of town), based on geology rather than tests.
What homeowner tests found
NH DHHS WISDOM private well summaries: private wells tested and reported to the state, 2006 to 2020. Shares are against the level the state applies to each contaminant, named in the last column; several are stricter than EPA.
Closer than the town
See the sampled wells near your address
The same records, drawn around one point: which wells within a few miles were sampled and what they found, how deep the wells next to you were drilled, and any leaking tank or cleanup site within a mile.
Check my addressWhat this means
Among homeowners in Manchester who sent a sample to the state lab, no health-based limit was exceeded often enough to publish a share. That is good news, but a single well can still be the exception.
What to test for in Manchester
- 1Coliform bacteriaRecommended for every private well, every year.
- 2RadonMedian local reading is 6,600 pCi/L.
- 3NitrateRecommended for every private well, especially near farms or septic systems.
- 4Chloride9% of 22 local wells tested were above the New Hampshire guidance level.
- 5ManganeseDetected in 100% of local samples.
- 6Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)143 leaking underground storage tank sites on record locally.
- 7PFAS3 unlined landfills on record locally.
- 8Metals panel60 hazardous waste sites on record locally.
Test your Manchester well for coliform bacteria, radon and nitrate
Certified lab analysis of your own tap water, bottles and prepaid return shipping included. The Essential well panel covers arsenic, uranium, nitrate, lead, copper, manganese, iron, sodium and bacteria; radon and PFAS are add-ons.
Order the Tap Score well water test kit, from $209Already tested? Upload the report
Just want bacteria checked first? Tap Score coliform and E. coli test, $99. Coliform and E. coli are the tests every well needs every year.
Want a quick look before paying for a lab? Home well water test strips on Amazon check hardness, iron, pH and nitrate in minutes. They are a screen, not a result: arsenic, bacteria, uranium and PFAS need a certified lab.
Affiliate links: the merchant pays us a commission and the price is the same for you. It does not change what the data above says. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Where to get a well tested in New Hampshire: certified labs, state programs and prices.
Already have results back? Get your lab report read against the Manchester numbers, $29. Every line explained, ranked by what matters, with the fix for each.
Wells in Manchester
129 domestic wells in Manchester are on record with the state since 1984. 90% are drilled into bedrock, and the typical well is 325 feet deep (one in ten goes past 613 feet).
In a typical Manchester well, bedrock starts about 12 feet down, the median yield is 9 gallons per minute, 19% of wells yield under 3 gallons per minute and usually need a storage tank.
Bedrock wells are where arsenic, uranium and radon come from: the water sits in fractures in granite and metamorphic rock and picks up whatever the rock carries. That is why testing for those three matters more here than in a dug or gravel well.
Find your own well's report
The state keeps the driller's report for most wells drilled since 1984. It tells you how deep your well is, where bedrock starts, and how much water it makes, which decides what treatment can work.
- Open NHDES OneStop and choose Water Well.
- Enter your town and one word of your street name. Leave out the house number and the Road or Street part; a short search matches more.
- In the results, click Show for your address to see the report: total depth, depth to bedrock, casing, yield in gallons per minute, static water level, and the driller.
- Save Results exports the whole list to a spreadsheet.
Reports exist only for wells drilled since January 1984, when reporting became mandatory, and street names are as they were when the well was drilled.
The rock under Manchester
Not a principal aquifer
The USGS map places this area outside any principal aquifer, which usually means wells here draw from fractured bedrock or thin local deposits rather than a large regional aquifer. Bedrock wells of that kind are where arsenic, radon and uranium turn up, and yields vary from well to well.
Classification from the USGS Principal Aquifers of the United States (national map, 2003 edition, GIS release 2015), read at the town centroid. A single well can sit in a different unit, especially near a boundary.
Official help in New Hampshire
Two places to start that are not selling anything: the state program that answers private well questions, and its list of labs certified to run drinking water tests. A certified lab is the difference between a result you can act on and a number.
Contamination sources on record in Manchester
NHDES records 143 leaking underground storage tank sites, 3 unlined landfills, 60 hazardous waste sites, and 47 reported spills and releases in Manchester, among 948 regulated sites in total. Groundwater does not follow property lines, so a well within a few hundred feet of one of these is worth testing for what that site could release.
- 143
- leaking underground storage tank sitesGasoline and heating oil that leaked from tanks move through groundwater as benzene, MTBE and other volatile organic compounds.
- 3
- unlined landfillsOlder unlined landfills are a leading source of PFAS, VOCs and metals in nearby wells.
- 60
- hazardous waste sitesSolvents, degreasers and metals from industrial sites can travel far in fractured bedrock.
- 47
- reported spills and releasesMost spills are fuel; a few are solvents or chemicals that reach the water table.
- 318
- registered underground storage tank sitesRegistered tanks are regulated and inspected; they matter most when they are old or near a shallow well.
- 33
- locally identified potential contamination sourcesTowns inventory these (vehicle repair, labs, salt piles, farms) when they draw wellhead protection maps.
- 339
- other remediation projects
- 5
- other solid waste facilities
Treatment that fits the local profile
Chloride
Point-of-use reverse osmosis; Distillation
Radon
Aeration (bubble-up or diffused) whole-house; Granular activated carbon whole-house (lower levels only)
Manganese
Oxidizing filter (greensand, birm) whole-house; Water softener (low levels); Point-of-use reverse osmosis
Systems we would look at first
Some links below are affiliate links. If you buy through one, the merchant pays us a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change which products we list or what the data says.
For chloride
Under-sink reverse osmosis system
under-sink or countertop, about $300
Look for NSF/ANSI 58 certification listing the contaminant you need removed.
For manganese
Iron and manganese oxidizing filter
whole-house, at the point of entry, about $1,800
Air-injection or greensand media; fixes staining at the source.
Free, no obligation
Get on the list for a free in-home water test in Manchester
No water treatment company serves Manchester through Well Water Nerd yet. We are signing licensed companies on county by county: they test at your tap for free, walk you through the numbers, and quote treatment only if something needs fixing. Leave your details and you are first in line. Nothing is shared until a company joins for Manchester, and you get an email naming it first.
Common questions
How deep are wells in Manchester?
The typical domestic well in Manchester is 325 feet deep, based on 129 wells reported to the state since 1984. One in ten is deeper than 613 feet. 90% are drilled into bedrock.
How often should I test a private well in Manchester?
Test for bacteria and nitrate every year. Test once for arsenic, uranium, radon, fluoride, manganese and PFAS, then again every three to five years or after any change in taste, color, or plumbing.
Towns near Manchester
Closest first. Groundwater does not stop at a line on a map, so the next town over is a fair second opinion.
Want the numbers themselves? Download the New Hampshire dataset as CSV, every county and town, with the sources named.
Sources
- USGS Water Quality Portal: 7 samples in Manchester. Data from the Water Quality Portal, a service of USGS, EPA and USDA; groundwater samples collected by USGS and cooperators. Retrieved September 3, 2026.
- NH DHHS WISDOM private well summaries: summaries for 2 contaminants in Manchester, up to 27 wells each. Town summaries of private well tests run by the New Hampshire Public Health Laboratories, published by NH DHHS through the WISDOM environmental public health tracking portal. Exceedance shares use New Hampshire guidance levels, which are stricter than EPA for arsenic (5 ug/L), manganese (0.3 mg/L), radon (2,000 pCi/L) and sodium (20 mg/L). Statistics for small counts are suppressed (*). Retrieved September 3, 2026.
- NH DHHS WISDOM private well summaries: modeled chance (19%) that a well in Manchester exceeds 5 ug/L of arsenic, from geology rather than tests. Town summaries of private well tests run by the New Hampshire Public Health Laboratories, published by NH DHHS through the WISDOM environmental public health tracking portal. Retrieved September 3, 2026.
- NHDES Water Well Inventory: 524 well records in Manchester, 129 domestic. Well construction records reported to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Water Well Board. Only aggregates are shown; owner names and addresses are never stored. Retrieved September 3, 2026.
- NHDES OneStop regulated sites: 948 regulated sites located in Manchester. Remediation sites, underground storage tanks, solid waste facilities and potential contamination sources from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services OneStop database. Retrieved September 3, 2026.
Non-detects count as samples and are treated as zero when computing medians. Exactly at the limit counts as not above it. A sample belongs to the town containing the well's reported coordinates.