Southface, VT
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.5 ppb (monitoring period 2026-2028). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. The latest result is under the action level, but this system has gone over 15 ppb before. Lead comes from pipes, not the source water, so a home with a lead service line can still be exposed. Test your own tap.
Who runs the water here
Southface serves about 105 people through 40 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Washington County, Vermont. EPA system ID: VT0005608; phone on file: 802-496-4760. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Southface's lead record
That is up 1.5 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2023. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Southface is 30.4 ppb across 13 monitoring periods, 5 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2028 | 1.5 ppb |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 9.8 ppb |
| 2021 | 1.4 ppb |
| 2020 | 1.1 ppb |
| 2020 | 4 ppb |
| 2019 | 22.3 ppb over 15 |
| 2019 | 27.5 ppb over 15 |
| 2018 | 11.4 ppb over 10 |
| 2018 | 30.4 ppb over 15 |
| 2017 | 22.3 ppb over 15 |
| 2017 | 22.3 ppb over 15 |
| 2016 | 1 ppb |
Against other Vermont systems
Of the 372 Vermont systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 7 are over 15 ppb right now and 65 have gone over at some point. Southface's 1.5 ppb sits at the 51st percentile in Vermont and the 63rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
41 other systems share Washington County; 19 of them have a higher latest lead result than Southface. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Barre City Water System | 14,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Montpelier Water System | 8,912 | 2 ppb |
| Edward Farrar Utility District | 6,003 | 2.2 ppb |
| Northfield Water Dept | 5,145 | 5 ppb |
| Mountain Water Company | 2,400 | 1.8 ppb |
| Berlin Municipal Water System | 1,819 | 2 ppb |
| Barre Town Water System | 1,638 | 0 (not detected) |
| Central Vermont Medical Center | 1,528 | 6.1 ppb |
| Plainfield Water System | 985 | 2.6 ppb |
| Graniteville Fire District 4 | 700 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Waitsfield, VT
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Waitsfield, VT 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 Southface whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 2000 ppb (copper action level 1,300 ppb).
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. Why an old exceedance still matters: over the limit before, under it now.