Fairhaven Water Dept, MA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 5 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.
Fairhaven Water Dept at a glance
Fairhaven Water Dept serves about 15,155 people through 6,837 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 Bristol County, Massachusetts. EPA system ID: MA4094000; phone on file: 5089794032. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Lead results over time
That is up 2 ppb from 3 ppb in the period ending 2024. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Fairhaven Water Dept is 7 ppb across 6 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 ppb |
| 2024 | 3 ppb |
| 2023 | 6 ppb |
| 2022 | 3 ppb |
| 2020 | 7 ppb |
| 2020 | 5 ppb |
Against other Massachusetts systems
Of the 535 Massachusetts systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.7 ppb; 13 are over 15 ppb right now and 66 have gone over at some point. Fairhaven Water Dept's 5 ppb sits at the 85th percentile in Massachusetts and the 91st nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
27 other systems share Bristol County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than Fairhaven Water Dept. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Inima Usa / Aquaria Llc | 105,643 | - |
| City Of New Bedford Dpi | 101,079 | 4.1 ppb |
| Fall River Water Department | 94,000 | 12 ppb |
| Taunton Water Division | 62,165 | 1.8 ppb |
| Attleboro Water Dept | 46,461 | 1.33 ppb |
| North Attleboro Water Dept | 31,410 | 5.1 ppb |
| Easton Water Div | 25,058 | 1.9 ppb |
| Dartmouth Water Division | 24,696 | 7 ppb |
| Mansfield Water Division | 21,797 | 1.9 ppb |
| Norton Water Department | 19,161 | 1.2 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Fairhaven, MA 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 Fairhaven 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. 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.