Cottage Row, VA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 3.4 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
Cottage Row serves about 120 people through 30 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Essex County, Virginia. EPA system ID: VA4057150; phone on file: 804-350-1731. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Cottage Row's lead record
That is up 1.47 ppb from 1.93 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Cottage Row is 3.4 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 3.4 ppb |
| 2022 | 1.93 ppb |
| 2019 | 0.66 ppb |
| 2016 | 1 ppb |
Against other Virginia systems
Of the 996 Virginia systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 3 are over 15 ppb right now and 59 have gone over at some point. Cottage Row's 3.4 ppb sits at the 85th percentile in Virginia and the 85th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Essex County
9 other systems share Essex County; 2 of them have a higher latest lead result than Cottage Row. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Tappahannock, Town Of | 2,375 | 4.33 ppb |
| Gwynnfield Subdivision | 410 | 0 (not detected) |
| Va American South Hill Banks | 183 | 1 ppb |
| Riverdale Subdivision | 95 | 0 (not detected) |
| Millers Square | 60 | 0 (not detected) |
| Maryfield Sub. | 48 | 0 (not detected) |
| Riverview Mobile Estates | 48 | 0 (not detected) |
| Daingerfield Subdivision | 43 | 0.62 ppb |
| Colemans Island | 30 | 4.62 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Glen Allen, VA 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 Cottage Row 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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.