Central Beach Fire District, RI
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.6 ppb (monitoring period 2021-2023). 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.
About Central Beach Fire District
Central Beach Fire District serves about 470 people through 184 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 groundwater, in Washington County, Rhode Island. EPA system ID: RI1647512; phone on file: 401-326-2622. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2020 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Central Beach Fire District is 0.6 ppb across 2 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 0.6 ppb |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
Against other Rhode Island systems
Of the 78 Rhode Island systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.1 ppb; 6 are over 15 ppb right now and 17 have gone over at some point. Central Beach Fire District's 0.6 ppb sits at the 35th percentile in Rhode Island and the 45th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
32 other systems share Washington County; 23 of them have a higher latest lead result than Central Beach Fire District. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Westerly Water Department | 35,298 | 3.6 ppb |
| North Kingstown Town Of | 27,732 | 1.3 ppb |
| Veolia Water Wakefield Rhode Island Inc | 21,225 | 3.2 ppb |
| University Of Rhode Island | 19,354 | 6.4 ppb |
| Block Island Water Company | 9,999 | 0 (not detected) |
| Narragansett Water System-Point Judith | 8,210 | 4.1 ppb |
| South Kingstown-South Shore | 6,170 | 1 ppb |
| Narragansett Water Dept-North End | 4,432 | 1.2 ppb |
| Kingston Water District | 3,968 | 1 ppb |
| Richmond, Town Of | 2,671 | 0.3 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Charlestown, RI 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 Central Beach Fire District whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 1665.5 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. Size matters more than most people expect: small vs large water systems.