Fairfax Water Dept, VT
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (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. The latest 90th-percentile result was reported as 0 (not detected at the lab's limit). That says the sampled homes were low, not that your home has no lead service line. Check your utility's service line inventory for your address.
About Fairfax Water Dept
Fairfax Water Dept serves about 1,550 people through 286 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Franklin County, Vermont. EPA system ID: VT0005117; phone on file: 802-849-6111. 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 2022 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Fairfax Water Dept is 2.2 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 2.2 ppb |
| 2016 | 0 (not detected) |
Against other Vermont systems
Of the 372 Vermont systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 7 are over 15 ppb right now and 65 have gone over at some point. Fairfax Water Dept's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 25th percentile in Vermont and the 29th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Nearby utilities
21 other systems share Franklin County; 16 of them have a higher latest lead result than Fairfax Water Dept. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| St Albans Water Dept | 10,200 | 0 (not detected) |
| Swanton Village Water | 4,000 | 5 ppb |
| Enosburg Falls Water System | 1,700 | 2.2 ppb |
| Richford Water System | 1,700 | 1.6 ppb |
| Montgomery Water System | 530 | 1.6 ppb |
| South Georgia Fire District | 500 | 0 (not detected) |
| Sheldon Water System | 480 | 1 ppb |
| Bakersfield Fire District 1 | 446 | 2 ppb |
| Franklin Water System | 400 | 0.8 ppb |
| East Berkshire Fire District 1 | 184 | 0.6 ppb |
What to do in your house
Look up your address in Fairfax Water Dept's service line inventory. If it says lead, galvanized or unknown, test your tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Fairfax Water Dept 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. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.