Shady Harbor Fire District, NJ

Lead detected, under the action levels

Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.9 ppb (monitoring period 2022-2024). 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.

Shady Harbor Fire District at a glance

Shady Harbor Fire District serves about 300 people through 90 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Washington County, New Jersey. EPA system ID: RI1559513; phone on file: 201-937-3515. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.

Lead results over time

The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Shady Harbor Fire District is 1.9 ppb across 1 monitoring period, none of them over 15 ppb.

Against other New Jersey systems

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. Shady Harbor Fire District's 1.9 ppb sits at the 65th percentile in New Jersey and the 68th nationally (higher means more lead).

Your move

Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Westwood, 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 Shady Harbor Fire District 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.