Lancaster Water Department, MA
Above the federal action level
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 16.9 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. In the most recent monitoring period, more than 10% of the sampled homes measured above 15 ppb. Use a filter certified to NSF/ANSI 53 for lead for drinking and cooking now, and test your own tap.
Who runs the water here
Lancaster Water Department serves about 6,000 people through 1,896 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 Worcester County, Massachusetts. EPA system ID: MA2147000; phone on file: 9783652412. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Lancaster Water Department's lead record
That is up 8.9 ppb from 8 ppb in the period ending 2026. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Lancaster Water Department is 16.9 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 16.9 ppb over 15 |
| 2026 | 8 ppb |
| 2024 | 8 ppb |
| 2017 | 13 ppb over 10 |
| 2016 | 7 ppb |
How Lancaster 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. Lancaster Water Department's 16.9 ppb sits at the 98th percentile in Massachusetts and the 99th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
107 other systems share Worcester County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Lancaster 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
Use a filter certified to NSF/ANSI 53 for lead on the tap you drink and cook from, now, before you test. Then test your own tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Lancaster 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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.