Fall River Water Department, MA
Above the new 10 ppb level coming in 2027
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 12 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. Under the current 15 ppb rule this is not an exceedance, but it is above the 10 ppb action level that takes over in Nov 2027. Test your own tap; filter if your result shows lead.
Fall River Water Department at a glance
Fall River Water Department serves about 94,000 people through 22,125 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 surface water, in Bristol County, Massachusetts. EPA system ID: MA4095000; phone on file: 5083242723. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Lead results over time
That is up 1.8 ppb from 10.2 ppb in the period ending 2024. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Fall River Water Department is 16 ppb across 7 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 12 ppb over 10 |
| 2024 | 10.2 ppb over 10 |
| 2023 | 11 ppb over 10 |
| 2022 | 4.8 ppb |
| 2022 | 6 ppb |
| 2021 | 16 ppb over 15 |
| 2018 | 5 ppb |
Where this result ranks
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. Fall River Water Department's 12 ppb sits at the 97th percentile in Massachusetts and the 98th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
27 other systems share Bristol County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Fall River Water Department. 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 |
| 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 |
| Somerset Water Department | 18,303 | 10 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Fall River, 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 Fall River 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. See what changes at 10 ppb in 2027.