Dover Water Department, DE
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2 ppb (monitoring period 2024-2026). 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
Dover Water Department serves about 39,491 people through 13,408 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 Kent County, Delaware. EPA system ID: DE0000571; phone on file: 302-736-7025. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2024 (2 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Dover Water Department is 4.1 ppb across 10 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 ppb |
| 2024 | 2 ppb |
| 2024 | 2 ppb |
| 2023 | 2.7 ppb |
| 2021 | 2.7 ppb |
| 2021 | 2.7 ppb |
| 2020 | 4.1 ppb |
| 2018 | 4.1 ppb |
| 2018 | 4.1 ppb |
| 2017 | 2.51 ppb |
How Dover Water Department compares
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. Dover Water Department's 2 ppb sits at the 75th percentile in Delaware and the 73rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
57 other systems share Kent County; 6 of them have a higher latest lead result than Dover Water Department. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Camden Pump District | 17,208 | 0 (not detected) |
| Garrison Lake Pump District | 17,148 | 0.62 ppb |
| Smyrna Water Department | 11,813 | 0 (not detected) |
| Dover Air Force Base | 11,000 | 5 ppb |
| Milford Water Department | 9,800 | 0 (not detected) |
| Church Creek (Awc) | 9,654 | 0 (not detected) |
| Artesian Northern Kent Regional | 7,014 | 0 (not detected) |
| Camden Wyoming Sewer And Water Authority | 5,000 | 2.1 ppb |
| Harrington Water Department | 3,562 | 0 (not detected) |
| Felton Water Department | 1,591 | 0 (not detected) |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Dover, 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 Dover Water Department 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.