Long Neck Water Company, DE
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.1 ppb (monitoring period 2021-2023). 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 Long Neck Water Company
Long Neck Water Company serves about 11,000 people through 4,753 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Sussex County, Delaware. EPA system ID: DE0000625; phone on file: 302-947-9600. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Long Neck Water Company's lead record
That is down 1.6 ppb from 2.7 ppb in the period ending 2020. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Long Neck Water Company is 2.7 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 1.1 ppb |
| 2020 | 2.7 ppb |
| 2017 | 1.3 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. Long Neck Water Company's 1.1 ppb sits at the 69th percentile in Delaware and the 57th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Sussex County
96 other systems share Sussex County; 37 of them have a higher latest lead result than Long Neck Water Company. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Rehoboth Pump District (Tui) | 81,417 | 0.71 ppb |
| Bethany Bay Pump District | 52,684 | 2.3 ppb |
| Dewey Beach Water Department | 31,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Rehoboth Beach Water Department | 25,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Artesian Southern Sussex Regional | 20,145 | 2 ppb |
| Sussex Shores Water Company | 12,450 | 6.9 ppb |
| Bethany Beach Water Department | 12,000 | 4.9 ppb |
| Lewes Board Of Public Works | 9,627 | 21.6 ppb |
| Millsboro Water Department | 8,568 | 5.2 ppb |
| Bayside Pump District (Tui) | 8,400 | 2.3 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Long Neck, DE 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 Long Neck Water Company 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.