South Kingstown-South Shore, RI
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1 ppb (monitoring period 2024-2026). 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.
South Kingstown-South Shore at a glance
South Kingstown-South Shore serves about 6,170 people through 2,583 service connections, which makes it a medium-sized system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Washington County, Rhode Island. EPA system ID: RI1615623; phone on file: 401-789-9331. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Every lead result on file
That is down 5 ppb from 6 ppb in the period ending 2023. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for South Kingstown-South Shore is 6 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 ppb |
| 2023 | 6 ppb |
| 2020 | 3 ppb |
| 2020 | 2 ppb |
| 2017 | 5 ppb |
How South Kingstown-South Shore compares
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. South Kingstown-South Shore's 1 ppb sits at the 48th percentile in Rhode Island and the 55th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Washington County
32 other systems share Washington County; 17 of them have a higher latest lead result than South Kingstown-South Shore. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Westerly Water Department | 35,298 | 3.6 ppb |
| North Kingstown Town Of | 27,732 | 1.3 ppb |
| Veolia Water Wakefield Rhode Island Inc | 21,225 | 3.2 ppb |
| University Of Rhode Island | 19,354 | 6.4 ppb |
| Block Island Water Company | 9,999 | 0 (not detected) |
| Narragansett Water System-Point Judith | 8,210 | 4.1 ppb |
| Narragansett Water Dept-North End | 4,432 | 1.2 ppb |
| Kingston Water District | 3,968 | 1 ppb |
| Richmond, Town Of | 2,671 | 0.3 ppb |
| South Kingstown-Middlebridge | 694 | 1 ppb |
Next steps for Wakefield, RI
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Wakefield, 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 South Kingstown-South Shore 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.