Bethel Water Dept, CT
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2026-2026). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. The latest 90th-percentile result was reported as 0 (not detected at the lab's limit). That says the sampled homes were low, not that your home has no lead service line. Check your utility's service line inventory for your address.
Who runs the water here
Bethel Water Dept serves about 9,507 people through 3,300 service connections, which makes it a medium-sized system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Fairfield County, Connecticut. EPA system ID: CT0090011; phone on file: 203-794-8557. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2026 (1 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Bethel Water Dept is 6.28 ppb across 27 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2026 | 1 ppb |
| 2025 | 2.38 ppb |
| 2024 | 6.28 ppb |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 1.4 ppb |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 1.2 ppb |
| 2021 | 1 ppb |
| 2021 | 2.2 ppb |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 1 ppb |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 1 ppb |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 1 ppb |
| 2017 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 2 ppb |
| 2016 | 1 ppb |
| 2016 | 0 (not detected) |
How Bethel Water Dept compares
Of the 493 Connecticut systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0.8 ppb; 2 are over 15 ppb right now and 49 have gone over at some point. Bethel Water Dept's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 35th percentile in Connecticut and the 37th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Neighbouring systems
58 other systems share Fairfield County; 39 of them have a higher latest lead result than Bethel Water Dept. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Aquarion-Eastern Fairfield County | 351,756 | 0 (not detected) |
| Aquarion-Stamford | 119,214 | 0 (not detected) |
| Danbury Water Department | 62,055 | 0 (not detected) |
| Aquarion-Greenwich | 53,297 | 0 (not detected) |
| South Norwalk Electric & Water | 42,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Norwalk First Taxing District | 40,256 | 0 (not detected) |
| Aquarion-Darien | 18,737 | 2 ppb |
| Aquarion-New Canaan | 10,097 | 0 (not detected) |
| Aquarion-Ridgefield | 7,476 | 3.1 ppb |
| Aquarion-Newtown Regional | 6,054 | 4 ppb |
Next steps for Bethel, CT
Look up your address in Bethel Water Dept's service line inventory. If it says lead, galvanized or unknown, test your tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Bethel 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. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.