Ferndale, MI
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 9 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.
Ferndale at a glance
Ferndale serves about 22,105 people through 10,250 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 Oakland County, Michigan. EPA system ID: MI0002280; phone on file: 248-546-2519. 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 2.3 ppb from 6.7 ppb in the period ending 2024. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Ferndale is 28 ppb across 9 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 9 ppb |
| 2024 | 6.7 ppb |
| 2023 | 11 ppb over 10 |
| 2022 | 11 ppb over 10 |
| 2021 | 11 ppb over 10 |
| 2021 | 8.2 ppb |
| 2020 | 28 ppb over 15 |
| 2019 | 15 ppb over 10 |
| 2017 | 3.99 ppb |
Against other Michigan systems
Of the 1,227 Michigan systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 31 are over 15 ppb right now and 109 have gone over at some point. Ferndale's 9 ppb sits at the 96th percentile in Michigan and the 97th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Oakland County
105 other systems share Oakland County; 2 of them have a higher latest lead result than Ferndale. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Troy | 85,854 | 0 (not detected) |
| Rochester Hills | 74,000 | 1.3 ppb |
| Waterford Township | 73,441 | 1 ppb |
| Southfield | 71,739 | 0 (not detected) |
| Pontiac | 63,776 | 1.6 ppb |
| Royal Oak, City Of | 57,236 | 4 ppb |
| Farmington Hills, City Of | 56,984 | 0 (not detected) |
| Novi, City Of | 56,780 | 0 (not detected) |
| West Bloomfield Township | 49,479 | 0 (not detected) |
| Bloomfield Township | 41,691 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Ferndale, MI
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Ferndale, MI 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 Ferndale 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. More in what a past exceedance means today.