Bourne Water District, MA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 4.4 ppb (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. 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
Bourne Water District serves about 22,500 people through 6,222 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 groundwater, in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. EPA system ID: MA4036000; phone on file: 5085632294. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Bourne Water District's lead record
That is up 1.7 ppb from 2.7 ppb in the period ending 2024. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Bourne Water District is 6 ppb across 13 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 4.4 ppb |
| 2024 | 2.7 ppb |
| 2023 | 4.2 ppb |
| 2022 | 2.3 ppb |
| 2021 | 2 ppb |
| 2020 | 6 ppb |
| 2019 | 3 ppb |
| 2018 | 3 ppb |
| 2018 | 2 ppb |
| 2017 | 4 ppb |
| 2017 | 4 ppb |
| 2016 | 4 ppb |
| 2016 | 3 ppb |
Where this result ranks
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. Bourne Water District's 4.4 ppb sits at the 81st percentile in Massachusetts and the 89th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Barnstable County
29 other systems share Barnstable County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Bourne Water District. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Falmouth Water Dept | 97,551 | 1.1 ppb |
| Dennis Water District | 65,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Upper Cape Regional Water Cooperative | 56,250 | - |
| Centerville Osterville Marstons Mills Wd | 50,000 | 1.82 ppb |
| Harwich Water Department | 39,144 | 0 (not detected) |
| Yarmouth Water Department | 38,900 | 1.5 ppb |
| Mashpee Water District | 36,922 | 1.4 ppb |
| Hyannis Water System, Town Of Barnstable | 35,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Brewster Water Department | 35,000 | 3.4 ppb |
| Chatham Water Department | 30,000 | 1.05 ppb |
Next steps for Pocasset, MA
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Pocasset, 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 Bourne Water District whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 1510 ppb (copper action level 1,300 ppb).
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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.