Providence-City Of - Whipple, RI
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.1 ppb (monitoring period 2023-2023). 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.
Providence-City Of - Whipple at a glance
Providence-City Of - Whipple serves about 471 people through 213 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Providence County, Rhode Island. EPA system ID: RI2980461; phone on file: 401-521-6300. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Lead results over time
That is up 1.1 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2023. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Providence-City Of - Whipple is 20 ppb across 15 monitoring periods, 2 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 1.1 ppb |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 0.7 ppb |
| 2021 | 1.4 ppb |
| 2021 | 1.2 ppb |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 1.4 ppb |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 4.7 ppb |
| 2018 | 6 ppb |
| 2018 | 18.2 ppb over 15 |
| 2017 | 10 ppb |
| 2017 | 20 ppb over 15 |
| 2016 | 9 ppb |
Where this result ranks
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. Providence-City Of - Whipple's 1.1 ppb sits at the 49th percentile in Rhode Island and the 57th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
24 other systems share Providence County; 8 of them have a higher latest lead result than Providence-City Of - Whipple. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Providence-City Of | 333,142 | 1.7 ppb |
| Pawtucket Water Supply Board Veolia-Na | 98,130 | 0 (not detected) |
| East Providence-City Of | 47,961 | 0.3 ppb |
| Woonsocket Water Division | 45,828 | 6.6 ppb |
| Lincoln Water Commission | 21,664 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cumberland, Town Of | 21,235 | 0 (not detected) |
| Greenville Water District | 9,500 | 0 (not detected) |
| Smithfield Water Supply Board | 9,460 | 0 (not detected) |
| Clear River Electric And Water District | 6,000 | 1.3 ppb |
| Slatersville Public Supply | 3,403 | 0 (not detected) |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Providence, 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 Providence-City Of - Whipple 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. Why an old exceedance still matters: over the limit before, under it now.