Manchester Water Works, NH
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2020-2022). 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.
Manchester Water Works at a glance
Manchester Water Works serves about 123,500 people through 32,061 service connections, which makes it a very large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire. EPA system ID: NH1471010. Ask the utility on your bill for your address in their service line inventory.
Manchester Water Works's lead record
Against the period ending 2019 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Manchester Water Works is 1 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 1 ppb |
| 2016 | 0 (not detected) |
Where this result ranks
Of the 124 New Hampshire systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 16 ppb; 62 are over 15 ppb right now and 64 have gone over at some point. Manchester Water Works's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 22nd percentile in New Hampshire and the 40th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Other water systems in Hillsborough County
67 other systems share Hillsborough County; 7 of them have a higher latest lead result than Manchester Water Works. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Pennichuck Water Works | 88,853 | 2 ppb |
| Merrimack Village Dist | 25,500 | 0 (not detected) |
| Hudson Water Dept | 16,700 | 0 (not detected) |
| Milford Water Utilities Dept | 9,500 | 2 ppb |
| Litchfield | 6,920 | 0 (not detected) |
| Peterborough Water Works | 4,500 | 9 ppb |
| Goffstown Village Pct | 3,250 | - |
| Little Pond Estates | 3,000 | - |
| Hillsborough Water Works | 2,000 | - |
| Wilton Water Works | 1,790 | - |
What to do in your house
Look up your address in Manchester Water Works'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 Manchester Water Works 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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.