Harvard Water Department, MA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 4.3 ppb (monitoring period 2022-2024). 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 Harvard Water Department
Harvard Water Department serves about 1,422 people through 99 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Worcester County, Massachusetts. EPA system ID: MA2125000; phone on file: 9784564130. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Harvard Water Department's lead record
That is up 1.3 ppb from 3 ppb in the period ending 2024. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Harvard Water Department is 5 ppb across 8 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 4.3 ppb |
| 2024 | 3 ppb |
| 2024 | 5 ppb |
| 2023 | 3 ppb |
| 2022 | 4 ppb |
| 2020 | 2.8 ppb |
| 2018 | 2 ppb |
| 2016 | 2.8 ppb |
How Harvard Water Department compares
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. Harvard Water Department's 4.3 ppb sits at the 80th percentile in Massachusetts and the 89th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Worcester County
107 other systems share Worcester County; 16 of them have a higher latest lead result than Harvard Water Department. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Worcester Dpwp, Water Supply Division | 206,518 | 2 ppb |
| Fitchburg Dpw Division Of Water Supply | 41,946 | 5 ppb |
| Leominster Water Division | 41,683 | 2.8 ppb |
| Shrewsbury Water Department | 38,325 | 0 (not detected) |
| Milford Water Department | 30,379 | 1 ppb |
| Westborough Water Department | 21,567 | 1.8 ppb |
| Gardner Water Department | 21,381 | 8 ppb |
| Southbridge Water Department | 19,562 | 3 ppb |
| Holden Water Division, Dpw | 18,016 | 3.1 ppb |
| Webster Water Department | 17,776 | 3.7 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Harvard, 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 Harvard 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.