Falmouth Water Dept, MA
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.1 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. 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
Falmouth Water Dept serves about 97,551 people through 21,920 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 Barnstable County, Massachusetts. EPA system ID: MA4096000; phone on file: 5084572543. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Falmouth Water Dept's lead record
That is down 2.6 ppb from 3.7 ppb in the period ending 2024. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Falmouth Water Dept is 21 ppb across 10 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.1 ppb |
| 2024 | 3.7 ppb |
| 2023 | 1.6 ppb |
| 2023 | 2.2 ppb |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2021 | 2 ppb |
| 2019 | 1 ppb |
| 2018 | 1 ppb |
| 2018 | 2 ppb |
| 2017 | 21 ppb over 15 |
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. Falmouth Water Dept's 1.1 ppb sits at the 37th percentile in Massachusetts and the 58th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
29 other systems share Barnstable County; 16 of them have a higher latest lead result than Falmouth Water Dept. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Dennis Water District | 65,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Upper Cape Regional Water Cooperative | 56,250 | - |
| Centerville Osterville Marstons Mills Wd | 50,000 | 1.82 ppb |
| Harwich Water Department | 39,144 | 0 (not detected) |
| Yarmouth Water Department | 38,900 | 1.5 ppb |
| Mashpee Water District | 36,922 | 1.4 ppb |
| Hyannis Water System, Town Of Barnstable | 35,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Brewster Water Department | 35,000 | 3.4 ppb |
| Chatham Water Department | 30,000 | 1.05 ppb |
| Sandwich Water District | 23,000 | 0 (not detected) |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Falmouth, 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 Falmouth 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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. Why an old exceedance still matters: over the limit before, under it now.