South Ashmere Water Association Inc, DE
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 3.5 ppb (monitoring period 2018-2020). 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.
About South Ashmere Water Association Inc
South Ashmere Water Association Inc serves about 150 people through 50 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Berkshire County, Delaware. EPA system ID: MA1132002; phone on file: 4134436055. 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 2020 (3.75 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for South Ashmere Water Association Inc is 3.75 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 3.5 ppb |
| 2020 | 3.75 ppb |
| 2020 | 0.55 ppb |
How South Ashmere Water Association Inc compares
Of the 196 Delaware systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0.31 ppb; 1 are over 15 ppb right now and 14 have gone over at some point. South Ashmere Water Association Inc's 3.5 ppb sits at the 80th percentile in Delaware and the 85th nationally (higher means more lead).
Next steps for Hockessin, DE
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Hockessin, DE 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 South Ashmere Water Association Inc 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.