Mahwah Water Department, NJ
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 4.38 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.
Who runs the water here
Mahwah Water Department serves about 26,777 people through 8,775 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Bergen County, New Jersey. EPA system ID: NJ0233001; phone on file: 201-529-4413. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2024 (4.38 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Mahwah Water Department is 4.38 ppb across 6 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 4.38 ppb |
| 2024 | 4.38 ppb |
| 2021 | 3.43 ppb |
| 2021 | 3.43 ppb |
| 2018 | 4 ppb |
| 2018 | 4 ppb |
How Mahwah Water Department compares
Of the 605 New Jersey systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 5 are over 15 ppb right now and 52 have gone over at some point. Mahwah Water Department's 4.38 ppb sits at the 89th percentile in New Jersey and the 89th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
19 other systems share Bergen County; 3 of them have a higher latest lead result than Mahwah Water Department. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Ridgewood Water | 61,700 | 2.61 ppb |
| Fair Lawn Water Dept | 35,564 | 2.5 ppb |
| Garfield Water Department | 30,487 | 3.4 ppb |
| Passaic Valley Wc Lodi Wd | 24,136 | 0.85 ppb |
| Lyndhurst Water Department | 22,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Elmwood Park Water Dept | 20,374 | 0 (not detected) |
| Park Ridge Water Dept | 16,466 | 1.4 ppb |
| Pvwc-North Arlington | 15,392 | 1.13 ppb |
| Ramsey Water Dept | 15,207 | 0 (not detected) |
| Saddle Brook Water Dept | 13,155 | 2.02 ppb |
Next steps for Mahwah, NJ
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Mahwah, NJ 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 Mahwah 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. Size matters more than most people expect: small vs large water systems.