Middletown Water Department, DE
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2025-2027). 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.
About Middletown Water Department
Middletown Water Department serves about 17,700 people through 8,336 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 New Castle County, Delaware. EPA system ID: DE0000614; phone on file: 302-275-6072. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Middletown Water Department's lead record
Against the period ending 2024 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Middletown Water Department is 0.66 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2027 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2024 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2021 | 0.54 ppb |
| 2021 | 0.66 ppb |
| 2018 | 0.53 ppb |
How Middletown Water Department compares
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. Middletown Water Department's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 47th percentile in Delaware and the 38th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Other water systems in New Castle County
30 other systems share New Castle County; 17 of them have a higher latest lead result than Middletown Water Department. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Artesian Water Company | 231,114 | 1 ppb |
| Wilmington Water Department | 107,976 | 0 (not detected) |
| Veolia Water Delaware, Inc | 100,495 | 2 ppb |
| Newark Water Department | 40,000 | 1 ppb |
| Municipal Services Commission | 5,549 | 0 (not detected) |
| East Ncc District | 5,538 | 0 (not detected) |
| North West Pump District | 4,149 | 0.8 ppb |
| Willow Grove Mill | 3,090 | 0 (not detected) |
| Delaware City Water Department (Awc) | 2,610 | 1 ppb |
| Delaware Correctional Center | 2,000 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Look up your address in Middletown Water Department'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 Middletown 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. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.