Saddle Brook Water Dept, NJ
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.02 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. 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
Saddle Brook Water Dept serves about 13,155 people through 5,400 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 Bergen County, New Jersey. EPA system ID: NJ0257001. Ask the utility on your bill for your address in their service line inventory.
Saddle Brook Water Dept's lead record
Against the period ending 2025 (1.12 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Saddle Brook Water Dept is 7.06 ppb across 10 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 2.02 ppb |
| 2025 | 1.12 ppb |
| 2024 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2021 | 7.06 ppb |
| 2020 | 4.95 ppb |
| 2019 | 5.57 ppb |
| 2018 | 3.6 ppb |
| 2017 | 6 ppb |
How Saddle Brook Water Dept 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. Saddle Brook Water Dept's 2.02 ppb sits at the 67th percentile in New Jersey and the 73rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
19 other systems share Bergen County; 11 of them have a higher latest lead result than Saddle Brook Water Dept. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Ridgewood Water | 61,700 | 2.61 ppb |
| Fair Lawn Water Dept | 35,564 | 2.5 ppb |
| Garfield Water Department | 30,487 | 3.4 ppb |
| Mahwah Water Department | 26,777 | 4.38 ppb |
| Passaic Valley Wc Lodi Wd | 24,136 | 0.85 ppb |
| Lyndhurst Water Department | 22,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Elmwood Park Water Dept | 20,374 | 0 (not detected) |
| Park Ridge Water Dept | 16,466 | 1.4 ppb |
| Pvwc-North Arlington | 15,392 | 1.13 ppb |
| Ramsey Water Dept | 15,207 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Saddle Brook, NJ
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Saddle Brook, 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 Saddle Brook Water Dept 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. What a 90th-percentile result does and does not tell you: how to read a lead result. Size matters more than most people expect: small vs large water systems.