Canton Water District, ME
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 3.1 ppb (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 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.
Who runs the water here
Canton Water District serves about 243 people through 97 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Oxford County, Maine. EPA system ID: ME0090310; phone on file: 207-597-2201. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Canton Water District's lead record
That is down 1.2 ppb from 4.3 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Canton Water District is 17.7 ppb across 8 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 3.1 ppb |
| 2025 | 4.3 ppb |
| 2025 | 4.5 ppb |
| 2024 | 17.7 ppb over 15 |
| 2021 | 5 ppb |
| 2018 | 4 ppb |
| 2018 | 4 ppb |
| 2016 | 8 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 358 Maine systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.5 ppb; 2 are over 15 ppb right now and 40 have gone over at some point. Canton Water District's 3.1 ppb sits at the 76th percentile in Maine and the 83rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
14 other systems share Oxford County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than Canton Water District. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Rumford Water District | 4,050 | 3.7 ppb |
| Paris Utility District | 2,940 | 2.1 ppb |
| Mexico Water District | 2,425 | 1.4 ppb |
| Fryeburg Water Company | 2,085 | 1.2 ppb |
| Norway Water District | 2,043 | 3.4 ppb |
| Bethel Water District | 1,813 | 4.9 ppb |
| Dixfield Water & Sewer Dept | 1,415 | 0 (not detected) |
| Oxford Water District | 1,100 | 2.2 ppb |
| West Paris Water District | 540 | 3.1 ppb |
| Buckfield Village Corporation | 425 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Canton, ME
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Canton, ME 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 Canton Water District 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. The lead result guide covers how utilities pick the homes they sample. Why an old exceedance still matters: over the limit before, under it now.