Orleans Water Department, MA
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2025-2025). 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.
Orleans Water Department at a glance
Orleans Water Department serves about 17,460 people through 5,430 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 groundwater, in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. EPA system ID: MA4224000; phone on file: 5082551200. 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 down 1.1 ppb from 1.1 ppb in the period ending 2024. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Orleans Water Department is 4 ppb across 8 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2024 | 1.1 ppb |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 1.8 ppb |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 2 ppb |
| 2016 | 4 ppb |
How Orleans Water Department compares
Of the 535 Massachusetts systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.7 ppb; 13 are over 15 ppb right now and 66 have gone over at some point. Orleans Water Department's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 22nd percentile in Massachusetts and the 38th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Nearby utilities
29 other systems share Barnstable County; 21 of them have a higher latest lead result than Orleans Water Department. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Falmouth Water Dept | 97,551 | 1.1 ppb |
| Dennis Water District | 65,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Upper Cape Regional Water Cooperative | 56,250 | - |
| Centerville Osterville Marstons Mills Wd | 50,000 | 1.82 ppb |
| Harwich Water Department | 39,144 | 0 (not detected) |
| Yarmouth Water Department | 38,900 | 1.5 ppb |
| Mashpee Water District | 36,922 | 1.4 ppb |
| Hyannis Water System, Town Of Barnstable | 35,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Brewster Water Department | 35,000 | 3.4 ppb |
| Chatham Water Department | 30,000 | 1.05 ppb |
What to do in your house
Look up your address in Orleans 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 Orleans 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. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.