Breton Estates, MA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.33 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
Breton Estates serves about 48 people through 2 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Hampden County, Massachusetts. EPA system ID: MA1227015; phone on file: 4132836940. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Breton Estates's lead record
Against the period ending 2022 (1.2 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Breton Estates is 1.81 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0.33 ppb |
| 2022 | 1.2 ppb |
| 2020 | 1.81 ppb |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
How Breton Estates 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. Breton Estates's 0.33 ppb sits at the 25th percentile in Massachusetts and the 42nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Hampden County
26 other systems share Hampden County; 23 of them have a higher latest lead result than Breton Estates. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Springfield Water And Sewer Commission | 169,170 | 3.5 ppb |
| Chicopee Water Dept (Mwra) | 55,560 | 1.5 ppb |
| Westfield Dpwwater Division | 41,094 | 2.7 ppb |
| Holyoke Water Works | 37,838 | 9 ppb |
| West Springfield Dpw Water Division | 28,835 | 1.6 ppb |
| Agawam Water Department | 28,692 | 1.5 ppb |
| East Longmeadow Dpw Water Dept | 16,358 | 1.4 ppb |
| Longmeadow Water Dept | 15,853 | 1.8 ppb |
| Wilbraham Water Dept (Mwra) | 8,533 | 5.63 ppb |
| Southwick Water Dept | 7,669 | 2.6 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Palmer, 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 Breton Estates 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.