South Shores (Tui), DE
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.
About South Shores (Tui)
South Shores (Tui) serves about 402 people through 134 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Sussex County, Delaware. EPA system ID: DE00A0404; phone on file: 302-242-6485. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2023 (1.6 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for South Shores (Tui) is 1.6 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 ppb |
| 2023 | 1.6 ppb |
| 2022 | 1.3 ppb |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 0.56 ppb |
Against other Delaware systems
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 Shores (Tui)'s 1 ppb sits at the 65th percentile in Delaware and the 53rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Sussex County
96 other systems share Sussex County; 39 of them have a higher latest lead result than South Shores (Tui). If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Rehoboth Pump District (Tui) | 81,417 | 0.71 ppb |
| Bethany Bay Pump District | 52,684 | 2.3 ppb |
| Dewey Beach Water Department | 31,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Rehoboth Beach Water Department | 25,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Artesian Southern Sussex Regional | 20,145 | 2 ppb |
| Sussex Shores Water Company | 12,450 | 6.9 ppb |
| Bethany Beach Water Department | 12,000 | 4.9 ppb |
| Long Neck Water Company | 11,000 | 1.1 ppb |
| Lewes Board Of Public Works | 9,627 | 21.6 ppb |
| Millsboro Water Department | 8,568 | 5.2 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Dover, 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 Shores (Tui) 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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.