Andover Water Dept, MA
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2025-2025). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. The latest result is under the action level, but this system has gone over 15 ppb before. Lead comes from pipes, not the source water, so a home with a lead service line can still be exposed. Test your own tap.
About Andover Water Dept
Andover Water Dept serves about 36,569 people through 10,110 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Essex County, Massachusetts. EPA system ID: MA3009000; phone on file: 9786238870. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Every lead result on file
That is down 4.3 ppb from 4.3 ppb in the period ending 2024. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Andover Water Dept is 20 ppb across 9 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2024 | 4.3 ppb |
| 2023 | 13.8 ppb over 10 |
| 2022 | 12 ppb over 10 |
| 2022 | 8.01 ppb |
| 2021 | 20 ppb over 15 |
| 2020 | 11.2 ppb over 10 |
| 2019 | 14.9 ppb over 10 |
| 2016 | 5 ppb |
How Andover Water Dept compares
Of the 535 Massachusetts systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.7 ppb; 13 are over 15 ppb right now and 66 have gone over at some point. Andover Water Dept's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 23rd percentile in Massachusetts and the 39th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Other water systems in Essex County
36 other systems share Essex County; 22 of them have a higher latest lead result than Andover Water Dept. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Lynn Water And Sewer Comm | 101,253 | 2.4 ppb |
| Salem And Beverly Water Supply Board | 90,330 | 1.7 ppb |
| Lawrence Water Works | 89,143 | 0 (not detected) |
| Haverhill Water Dept | 61,277 | 0 (not detected) |
| Peabody Water Dept. | 54,481 | 4.18 ppb |
| Methuen Water Dept | 53,059 | 1.6 ppb |
| Beverly Water Dept | 47,461 | - |
| Salem Water Department | 44,480 | - |
| Gloucester Public Utility Division | 37,440 | 3 ppb |
| North Andover Water Dept | 30,915 | 1.2 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Andover, MA 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 Andover Water Dept 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. More in what a past exceedance means today.