Rochester Water System, VT
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1 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
Rochester Water System serves about 440 people through 168 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 groundwater, in Windsor County, Vermont. EPA system ID: VT0005328; phone on file: 802-989-1436. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2022 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Rochester Water System is 1.7 ppb across 6 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 ppb |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 1.7 ppb |
| 2016 | 0 (not detected) |
Against other Vermont systems
Of the 372 Vermont systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 7 are over 15 ppb right now and 65 have gone over at some point. Rochester Water System's 1 ppb sits at the 42nd percentile in Vermont and the 53rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
38 other systems share Windsor County; 24 of them have a higher latest lead result than Rochester Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Springfield Water Dept | 9,800 | 1.6 ppb |
| Hartford Water Dept | 7,600 | 2.4 ppb |
| Chester Water Dept | 3,200 | 2.5 ppb |
| Ludlow Village Water Dept | 2,880 | 1.8 ppb |
| Town Of Woodstock Water Department | 2,473 | 3.5 ppb |
| Windsor Water Dept | 2,350 | 2.7 ppb |
| Quechee Central | 2,262 | 3.2 ppb |
| Bethel Water Dept | 1,929 | 2.5 ppb |
| Jackson Gore Okemo | 1,695 | 0 (not detected) |
| Royalton Fire District 1 | 1,500 | 6.5 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Rochester, VT 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 Rochester Water System 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.