County Seat Gardens, DE
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 5.4 ppb (monitoring period 2025-2025). 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.
About County Seat Gardens
County Seat Gardens serves about 297 people through 106 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Sussex County, Delaware. EPA system ID: DE0000901; phone on file: 302-228-0998. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Every lead result on file
That is down 1.4 ppb from 6.8 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for County Seat Gardens is 33.3 ppb across 7 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 5.4 ppb |
| 2025 | 6.8 ppb |
| 2024 | 33.3 ppb over 15 |
| 2020 | 4.2 ppb |
| 2020 | 4.2 ppb |
| 2017 | 11 ppb over 10 |
| 2017 | 11 ppb over 10 |
Where this result ranks
Of the 196 Delaware systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0.31 ppb; 1 are over 15 ppb right now and 14 have gone over at some point. County Seat Gardens's 5.4 ppb sits at the 87th percentile in Delaware and the 92nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Sussex County
96 other systems share Sussex County; 17 of them have a higher latest lead result than County Seat Gardens. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Rehoboth Pump District (Tui) | 81,417 | 0.71 ppb |
| Bethany Bay Pump District | 52,684 | 2.3 ppb |
| Dewey Beach Water Department | 31,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Rehoboth Beach Water Department | 25,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Artesian Southern Sussex Regional | 20,145 | 2 ppb |
| Sussex Shores Water Company | 12,450 | 6.9 ppb |
| Bethany Beach Water Department | 12,000 | 4.9 ppb |
| Long Neck Water Company | 11,000 | 1.1 ppb |
| Lewes Board Of Public Works | 9,627 | 21.6 ppb |
| Millsboro Water Department | 8,568 | 5.2 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Georgetown, DE 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 County Seat Gardens 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.