Milton Water Department, DE
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 7.2 ppb (monitoring period 2023-2025). 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
Milton Water Department serves about 3,200 people through 2,121 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Sussex County, Delaware. EPA system ID: DE0000629; phone on file: 302-684-4110. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Every lead result on file
That is up 7.2 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Milton Water Department is 8.8 ppb across 6 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 7.2 ppb |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 7.1 ppb |
| 2018 | 6.15 ppb |
| 2017 | 5.1 ppb |
| 2016 | 8.8 ppb |
How Milton 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. Milton Water Department's 7.2 ppb sits at the 93rd percentile in Delaware and the 95th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Sussex County
96 other systems share Sussex County; 9 of them have a higher latest lead result than Milton Water Department. 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 |
| Long Neck Water Company | 11,000 | 1.1 ppb |
| Lewes Board Of Public Works | 9,627 | 21.6 ppb |
| Millsboro Water Department | 8,568 | 5.2 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Milton, 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 Milton 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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.