Dutchess Forest S/D, NC
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 4 ppb (monitoring period 2024-2024). 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.
Who runs the water here
Dutchess Forest S/D serves about 81 people through 32 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Columbus County, North Carolina. EPA system ID: NC0424102; phone on file: 910-642-6741. 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 4 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2024. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Dutchess Forest S/D is 50.5 ppb across 15 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 4 ppb |
| 2024 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2023 | 5 ppb |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 50.5 ppb over 15 |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 10 ppb |
| 2018 | 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. Dutchess Forest S/D's 4 ppb sits at the 91st percentile in North Carolina and the 87th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
14 other systems share Columbus County; 2 of them have a higher latest lead result than Dutchess Forest S/D. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Columbus Co Water Districts Ii, Iii, V | 10,442 | 0 (not detected) |
| Whiteville, City Of | 5,426 | 4 ppb |
| Tabor City, Town Of | 3,277 | 0 (not detected) |
| Columbus County Water Dist Iv | 2,598 | 0 (not detected) |
| Lake Waccamaw, Town Of | 2,572 | 5 ppb |
| Chadbourn, Town Of | 2,370 | 5 ppb |
| Columbus Co Water District I | 1,700 | 0 (not detected) |
| Fair Bluff, Town Of | 800 | 3.15 ppb |
| Bolton, Town Of | 668 | 0 (not detected) |
| Brunswick, Town Of | 495 | 3 ppb |
Next steps for Brunswick, NC
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Brunswick, 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 Dutchess Forest S/D 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. More in what a past exceedance means today.