Charlestown Water Works, NH
Above the federal action level
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 19 ppb (monitoring period 2019-2021). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. In the most recent monitoring period, more than 10% of the sampled homes measured above 15 ppb. Use a filter certified to NSF/ANSI 53 for lead for drinking and cooking now, and test your own tap.
Charlestown Water Works at a glance
Charlestown Water Works serves about 2,850 people through 1,250 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 Sullivan County, New Hampshire. EPA system ID: NH0411010. Ask the utility on your bill for your address in their service line inventory.
Lead results over time
The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Charlestown Water Works is 19 ppb across 1 monitoring period, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 19 ppb over 15 |
How Charlestown Water Works compares
Of the 124 New Hampshire systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 16 ppb; 62 are over 15 ppb right now and 64 have gone over at some point. Charlestown Water Works's 19 ppb sits at the 61st percentile in New Hampshire and the 99th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
14 other systems share Sullivan County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Charlestown Water Works. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Claremont Water Dept | 9,000 | 2 ppb |
| Newport Water Works | 5,000 | 14 ppb |
| Village Dist Of Eastman | 3,400 | 16 ppb |
| Sunapee Water Works | 1,680 | - |
| Meriden Village Water Dist | 750 | - |
| Sullivan County Complex | 625 | - |
| Georges Mills Water Works | 500 | - |
| Plainfield Water Dept | 284 | - |
| Windy Acres | 180 | - |
| Meadowview Apts | 58 | - |
Next steps for Charlestown, NH
Use a filter certified to NSF/ANSI 53 for lead on the tap you drink and cook from, now, before you test. Then test your own tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Charlestown Water Works 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.