Albany Water System, VT
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.6 ppb (monitoring period 2022-2024). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. Lead was measured in sampled homes but the 90th percentile is under both action levels. EPA's health goal for lead is zero, so test your own tap if your home was built before 1986 or anyone in it is pregnant or a young child.
Who runs the water here
Albany Water System serves about 200 people through 80 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Orleans County, Vermont. EPA system ID: VT0005188; phone on file: 802-755-6141. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Albany Water System's lead record
That is down 4.6 ppb from 5.2 ppb in the period ending 2021. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Albany Water System is 5.2 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 0.6 ppb |
| 2021 | 5.2 ppb |
| 2018 | 0.7 ppb |
Against other Vermont systems
Of the 372 Vermont systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 7 are over 15 ppb right now and 65 have gone over at some point. Albany Water System's 0.6 ppb sits at the 35th percentile in Vermont and the 45th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Orleans County
21 other systems share Orleans County; 17 of them have a higher latest lead result than Albany Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Jay Peak Water System | 6,740 | 3 ppb |
| Newport City Water System | 4,766 | 2.3 ppb |
| Derby Center Water System | 1,400 | 2 ppb |
| Barton Water System | 950 | 2 ppb |
| North Troy Water System | 864 | 2.5 ppb |
| Orleans Water System | 846 | 4.7 ppb |
| Greensboro Fire District 1 | 551 | 1.1 ppb |
| Craftsbury Fire District 2 | 420 | 2.8 ppb |
| Newport Center Water System | 330 | 0.7 ppb |
| Troy Water System | 315 | 5.9 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Albany, VT may offer free or low-cost kits through the utility. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Albany Water System whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do.
These figures describe homes the utility sampled, not your tap. Only your service line record or a test of your own water answers the question for your house. What a 90th-percentile result does and does not tell you: how to read a lead result. Size matters more than most people expect: small vs large water systems.