Newark Water Department, NJ
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 4.03 ppb (monitoring period 2026-2026). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. The latest result is under the action level, but this system has gone over 15 ppb before. Lead comes from pipes, not the source water, so a home with a lead service line can still be exposed. Test your own tap.
Who runs the water here
Newark Water Department serves about 294,274 people through 36,402 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 Essex County, New Jersey. EPA system ID: NJ0714001; phone on file: 973-733-6303. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Newark Water Department's lead record
That is up 4.03 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Newark Water Department is 57 ppb across 18 monitoring periods, 7 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 4.03 ppb |
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2024 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2023 | 4.1 ppb |
| 2022 | 4.81 ppb |
| 2022 | 4.44 ppb |
| 2021 | 9.75 ppb |
| 2021 | 6.6 ppb |
| 2020 | 13 ppb over 10 |
| 2020 | 13.9 ppb over 10 |
| 2019 | 31 ppb over 15 |
| 2019 | 57 ppb over 15 |
| 2018 | 47.9 ppb over 15 |
| 2018 | 17.8 ppb over 15 |
| 2017 | 26.7 ppb over 15 |
| 2017 | 26.7 ppb over 15 |
| 2017 | 27 ppb over 15 |
How Newark 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. Newark Water Department's 4.03 ppb sits at the 87th percentile in New Jersey and the 88th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
19 other systems share Essex County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Newark Water Department. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| East Orange Water Commission | 75,000 | 1.59 ppb |
| Bloomfield Water Department | 53,315 | 2.2 ppb |
| Montclair Water Bureau | 40,150 | 0 (not detected) |
| Belleville Water Dept | 35,129 | 1.86 ppb |
| Orange Water Dept | 30,134 | 2.02 ppb |
| Nutley Water Dept | 29,500 | 0.55 ppb |
| Livingston Twp Div Of Water | 27,391 | 4.18 ppb |
| South Orange Water Department | 16,964 | 2 ppb |
| Verona Water Department | 13,641 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cedar Grove Water Dept | 12,900 | 0 (not detected) |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Newark, 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 Newark 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. More in what a past exceedance means today.