Deep Creek Lake Water Service Area, MD
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 6.33 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. 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
Deep Creek Lake Water Service Area serves about 5,502 people through 377 service connections, which makes it a medium-sized system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Garrett County, Maryland. EPA system ID: MD1111096; phone on file: 301-334-7488. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Every lead result on file
That is up 3.83 ppb from 2.5 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Deep Creek Lake Water Service Area is 6.33 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 6.33 ppb |
| 2022 | 2.5 ppb |
| 2019 | 5.38 ppb |
| 2016 | 3.3 ppb |
Against other Maryland systems
Of the 437 Maryland systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 3 are over 15 ppb right now and 21 have gone over at some point. Deep Creek Lake Water Service Area's 6.33 ppb sits at the 95th percentile in Maryland and the 94th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
13 other systems share Garrett County; 2 of them have a higher latest lead result than Deep Creek Lake Water Service Area. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Town Of Mountain Lake Park | 3,000 | 1.65 ppb |
| Town Of Oakland | 1,850 | 1.73 ppb |
| Town Of Grantsville | 885 | 1.76 ppb |
| Town Of Friendsville | 622 | 3.31 ppb |
| Town Of Kitzmiller | 370 | 6.6 ppb |
| Bloomington | 350 | 8.4 ppb |
| Town Of Accident | 300 | 2 ppb |
| Town Of Deer Park | 272 | 0 (not detected) |
| Crellin | 230 | 0 (not detected) |
| Gorman | 150 | 0.66 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Mountain Lake Park, MD 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 Deep Creek Lake Water Service Area 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. Size matters more than most people expect: small vs large water systems.