Harrington Water Department, DE
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (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 90th-percentile result was reported as 0 (not detected at the lab's limit). That says the sampled homes were low, not that your home has no lead service line. Check your utility's service line inventory for your address.
About Harrington Water Department
Harrington Water Department serves about 3,562 people through 1,251 service connections, which makes it a medium-sized system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Kent County, Delaware. EPA system ID: DE0000126; phone on file: 302-398-3423. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
That is down 5.2 ppb from 5.2 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Harrington Water Department is 12.5 ppb across 8 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb (1 over 10 ppb).
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2025 | 5.2 ppb |
| 2024 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 12.5 ppb over 10 |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 5.65 ppb |
| 2016 | 0.3 ppb |
Against other Delaware systems
Of the 196 Delaware systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0.31 ppb; 1 are over 15 ppb right now and 14 have gone over at some point. Harrington Water Department's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 41st percentile in Delaware and the 33rd nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Other water systems in Kent County
57 other systems share Kent County; 22 of them have a higher latest lead result than Harrington Water Department. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Dover Water Department | 39,491 | 2 ppb |
| Camden Pump District | 17,208 | 0 (not detected) |
| Garrison Lake Pump District | 17,148 | 0.62 ppb |
| Smyrna Water Department | 11,813 | 0 (not detected) |
| Dover Air Force Base | 11,000 | 5 ppb |
| Milford Water Department | 9,800 | 0 (not detected) |
| Church Creek (Awc) | 9,654 | 0 (not detected) |
| Artesian Northern Kent Regional | 7,014 | 0 (not detected) |
| Camden Wyoming Sewer And Water Authority | 5,000 | 2.1 ppb |
| Felton Water Department | 1,591 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Look up your address in Harrington Water Department's service line inventory. If it says lead, galvanized or unknown, test your tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Harrington 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. A zero today does not rule out a jump later - the rules are tightening in 2027.