Brookhaven National Laboratory, NY
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.7 ppb (monitoring period 2024-2024). 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.
Brookhaven National Laboratory at a glance
Brookhaven National Laboratory serves about 3,500 people through 134 service connections, which makes it a medium-sized system under EPA's size classes. It is federally owned and draws groundwater, in Suffolk County, New York. EPA system ID: NY5111891; phone on file: 631-344-8262. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
That is up 1.7 ppb from 1 ppb in the period ending 2023. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Brookhaven National Laboratory is 17.1 ppb across 8 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 2.7 ppb |
| 2023 | 1 ppb |
| 2022 | 17.1 ppb over 15 |
| 2022 | 1.4 ppb |
| 2021 | 5.9 ppb |
| 2021 | 8.6 ppb |
| 2020 | 5.3 ppb |
| 2017 | 7 ppb |
Against other New York systems
Of the 2,077 New York systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.5 ppb; 17 are over 15 ppb right now and 165 have gone over at some point. Brookhaven National Laboratory's 2.7 ppb sits at the 69th percentile in New York and the 79th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Suffolk County
25 other systems share Suffolk County; 9 of them have a higher latest lead result than Brookhaven National Laboratory. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Suffolk County Water Authority | 1,100,000 | 1.25 ppb |
| South Huntington Water District | 81,760 | 1.3 ppb |
| Greenlawn Water District | 42,000 | 1 ppb |
| Riverhead Water District | 35,000 | 2 ppb |
| Dix Hills Water District | 34,522 | 1 ppb |
| Smithtown Water District | 19,635 | 1.2 ppb |
| Hampton Bays Water District | 12,500 | 1.3 ppb |
| Robert Moses State Park | 11,600 | 1 ppb |
| St James Water District | 10,587 | 1 ppb |
| Ocean Beach Water District | 4,500 | 1 ppb |
Next steps for Upton, NY
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Upton, NY 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 Brookhaven National Laboratory 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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. More in what a past exceedance means today.