Cavendish Town Water System, VT
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2 ppb (monitoring period 2023-2025). 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
Cavendish Town Water System serves about 950 people through 402 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Windsor County, Vermont. EPA system ID: VT0005317; phone on file: 802-226-7291. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Cavendish Town Water System's lead record
Against the period ending 2022 (1.4 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Cavendish Town Water System is 2.1 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2 ppb |
| 2022 | 1.4 ppb |
| 2019 | 2.1 ppb |
| 2016 | 2 ppb |
How Cavendish Town Water System compares
Of the 372 Vermont systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 7 are over 15 ppb right now and 65 have gone over at some point. Cavendish Town Water System's 2 ppb sits at the 62nd percentile in Vermont and the 72nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
38 other systems share Windsor County; 17 of them have a higher latest lead result than Cavendish Town Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Springfield Water Dept | 9,800 | 1.6 ppb |
| Hartford Water Dept | 7,600 | 2.4 ppb |
| Chester Water Dept | 3,200 | 2.5 ppb |
| Ludlow Village Water Dept | 2,880 | 1.8 ppb |
| Town Of Woodstock Water Department | 2,473 | 3.5 ppb |
| Windsor Water Dept | 2,350 | 2.7 ppb |
| Quechee Central | 2,262 | 3.2 ppb |
| Bethel Water Dept | 1,929 | 2.5 ppb |
| Jackson Gore Okemo | 1,695 | 0 (not detected) |
| Royalton Fire District 1 | 1,500 | 6.5 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Cavendish, VT 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 Cavendish Town Water System 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.