Franklin Water System, VT
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.8 ppb (monitoring period 2024-2026). 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.
About Franklin Water System
Franklin Water System serves about 400 people through 92 service connections, which makes it a very 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: VT0005120. Ask the utility on your bill for your address in their service line inventory.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2025 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Franklin Water System is 2.2 ppb across 7 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 0.8 ppb |
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 2.2 ppb |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 0.6 ppb |
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. Franklin Water System's 0.8 ppb sits at the 38th percentile in Vermont and the 48th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
21 other systems share Franklin County; 12 of them have a higher latest lead result than Franklin Water System. 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 |
| Fairfax Water Dept | 1,550 | 0 (not detected) |
| 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 |
| East Berkshire Fire District 1 | 184 | 0.6 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Montpelier, VT 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 Franklin Water System 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.