Newport-City Of, RI
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 4.4 ppb (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 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
Newport-City Of serves about 42,155 people through 15,709 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 Newport County, Rhode Island. EPA system ID: RI1592010; phone on file: 401-845-5600. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Lead results over time
That is down 23.3 ppb from 27.7 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Newport-City Of is 27.7 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2027 | 4.4 ppb |
| 2025 | 27.7 ppb over 15 |
| 2022 | 5.2 ppb |
| 2019 | 4.8 ppb |
| 2016 | 8.3 ppb |
How Newport-City Of compares
Of the 78 Rhode Island systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.1 ppb; 6 are over 15 ppb right now and 17 have gone over at some point. Newport-City Of's 4.4 ppb sits at the 84th percentile in Rhode Island and the 89th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
11 other systems share Newport County; 2 of them have a higher latest lead result than Newport-City Of. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Portsmouth Water & Fire District | 17,090 | 4.8 ppb |
| North Tiverton Fire District | 8,969 | 1.9 ppb |
| Naval Station, Newport | 7,870 | 7.7 ppb |
| Jamestown Water Department | 3,348 | 1.1 ppb |
| Tiverton Water Authority, Town Hall | 3,213 | 3 ppb |
| Stone Bridge Fire District | 2,793 | - |
| United States Navy -Fort Adams | 320 | 0 (not detected) |
| Meadowlark, Inc. | 183 | - |
| Heritage Park Home Co-Operative | 60 | 3 ppb |
| Four Seasons Mhp Co-Op Assn. | 40 | - |
Next steps for Newport, RI
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Newport, RI 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 Newport-City Of 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. The lead result guide covers how utilities pick the homes they sample. Why an old exceedance still matters: over the limit before, under it now.