Dare County Water System, NC
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 3.9 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
Dare County Water System serves about 28,732 people through 15,286 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Dare County, North Carolina. EPA system ID: NC0428030; phone on file: 252-475-5990. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Dare County Water System's lead record
Against the period ending 2021 (4 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Dare County Water System is 6 ppb across 7 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 3.9 ppb |
| 2021 | 4 ppb |
| 2020 | 4 ppb |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 6 ppb |
| 2017 | 6 ppb |
| 2016 | 0 (not detected) |
Where this result ranks
Of the 1,925 North Carolina systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 5 are over 15 ppb right now and 75 have gone over at some point. Dare County Water System's 3.9 ppb sits at the 90th percentile in North Carolina and the 87th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
6 other systems share Dare County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Dare County Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Kill Devil Hills, Town Of | 7,200 | 2.3 ppb |
| Dare Co-Cape Hatteras Water | 5,486 | 0 (not detected) |
| Nags Head, Town Of | 3,125 | 0 (not detected) |
| Manteo Town Of | 2,638 | 0 (not detected) |
| Dare Co-Rws Water System | 2,100 | 0 (not detected) |
| Dare Co-Stumpy Point Water Sys | 269 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Kill Devil Hills, NC
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Kill Devil Hills, NC 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 Dare County 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. What a 90th-percentile result does and does not tell you: how to read a lead result. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.