New York City’s water is famously the best tasting in the nation — but there’s good news and bad news about what’s actually in it.

A study from a public fountain at City Hall by The Post found concerning trace levels of lead — but at the same time found no trace of dangerous plastic “forever chemicals.”

The gulp-sized sample pooled from a drinking fountain in the basement of City Hall in July detected 1.13 parts per billion (ppb) levels of lead — a percentage of the heavy metal that is roughly equal to a drop in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Though deceivingly small and legally compliant, any amount of lead is “very, very bad,” explained Dr. Eric Roy, a water science expert.

“You have great water. You pipe it in from the Catskills, but unfortunately, as soon as it hits your very old lead pipe infrastructure, it can pick up lead along the way and that’s the uncomfortable reality,” Roy, the Head of Science at Culligan, which tested the water sample.

While the 1.13 ppb rate falls well below the legal 15 ppb limit that the City of New York has in place — a cap that will be reduced to match the federal maximum of 10 ppb in 2027 — Roy argued that it lies way too high for health safety standards.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a strict maximum lead limit of 1 ppb, while the EPA’s own maximum contaminant level goal is set at 0 ppb because “there is no safe level of exposure.”

Lead exposure results in lower IQ, hyperactivity, cognitive problems, anemia, cardiovascular issues, decreased kidney function, reproductive problems and much more.

“Children are more susceptible to lead. Children and people who are looking to have kids. [1.13 ppb] is something that is obviously legal, but if we’re talking to people about lead in the home, we’d start asking questions,” said Roy.

The lead presence stems from pipes rather than the water source, meaning that neighboring homes could have drastically different contamination levels.

Meanwhile, the test found no measurable amount of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), or “forever chemicals,” which are man-made, industrial toxins often used in plastic manufacturing and are a growing concern in the Empire State.

Attorney General Letitia James last month sued several manufacturers for allegedly knowingly using harmful PFAS in cosmetics, non-stick cookware and other products that ultimately leak into metro drinking supplies.

“We tested [the] water for PFAS and [the] sample came back clean, so that’s a good thing,” Roy said about the PFAS findings. But he gave one big caveat for the results when it came to the “forever chemicals.”

“Sampling water is one single point in time. Some of your neighbors — New York City people — have come back with some PFAS in their water, but your sample did not at that moment in time.”

Roy warned that each drinking water test, including for lead, is a “moment in time” and the results don’t indicate that Big Apple water is devoid of forever chemicals — especially because the drinking water is pulled from 22 sources.

“It can literally be how much rain fell, because rain can dilute it. Think about putting a drop of food coloring in a bowl — if that drop of the food coloring is further away from where you’re actually drawing from, the color is lower, non-existent. That’s just kind of one of those things where there’s variability,” said Roy.

The Big Apple as a whole, however, has a severe lead issue — with some households in 2025 reporting as much as 155 pbb, according to a city investigation pointing to “corrosion of household plumbing” as the source.

Buildings and homes that predate the 1986 Safe Drinking Water Act, which banned toxic solder from plumbing, are more likely to be seeping lead into the tap water.

There are approximately 121,100 known lead or galvanized private service lines throughout the city that the city Department of Environmental Protection is in the process of slowly replacing through state funding. Roughly 800 lead service lines have already been replaced.

But City Hall, like all city-owned buildings, is connected to a non-lead service line, data shows — making the presence of lead a mystery.

“While New York City’s drinking water is delivered lead-free, we know that lead exposure can occur when water passes through privately owned service lines or internal plumbing,” a City Hall spokesperson said.

“New York City treats the water supply with a food-grade additive called orthophosphate that creates a protective coating inside the pipes, preventing lead from entering the water. New Yorkers who are worried about lead in their drinking water should call 311 to request a free lead test kit.”

The city told The Post that the results aren’t shocking enough to warrant a response, with the Department of Citywide Administrative Services emphasizing that a 5-ppb result would trigger action.

“This test result of 1.13 ppb of lead is about 9 times lower than the federal action level under the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule Improvements,” the city DEP added.  

“DEP continuously monitors the water in the distribution system, upstate reservoirs and feeder streams that are sources for New York City’s drinking water supply.”

The City Hall water also had high traces of aluminum, copper and zinc, but at levels that only alter the taste and color of the sample.

The good news is that lead contamination can be eliminated by pipe replacement, while both the toxin and PFAS can be cleaned by at-home filtration systems.