Trenton Water Works, NJ
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 6 ppb (monitoring period 2026-2026). 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
Trenton Water Works serves about 217,000 people through 62,403 service connections, which makes it a very large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Mercer County, New Jersey. EPA system ID: NJ1111001; phone on file: 609-433-4749. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Every lead result on file
That is up 1.6 ppb from 4.4 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Trenton Water Works is 19.7 ppb across 22 monitoring periods, 5 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 6 ppb |
| 2025 | 4.4 ppb |
| 2025 | 3.3 ppb |
| 2024 | 4 ppb |
| 2024 | 3.5 ppb |
| 2023 | 4.2 ppb |
| 2023 | 2.2 ppb |
| 2022 | 3.33 ppb |
| 2022 | 7.24 ppb |
| 2021 | 5.57 ppb |
| 2021 | 5 ppb |
| 2020 | 10.2 ppb over 10 |
| 2020 | 7.5 ppb |
| 2019 | 14.8 ppb over 10 |
| 2019 | 12.7 ppb over 10 |
| 2018 | 17.1 ppb over 15 |
| 2018 | 19.7 ppb over 15 |
| 2018 | 19.7 ppb over 15 |
| 2017 | 10 ppb |
| 2017 | 10 ppb |
| 2017 | 17.6 ppb over 15 |
| 2017 | 17.6 ppb over 15 |
Where this result ranks
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. Trenton Water Works's 6 ppb sits at the 94th percentile in New Jersey and the 93rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
10 other systems share Mercer County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Trenton Water Works. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Aqua Nj - Hamilton Square | 39,128 | 0 (not detected) |
| East Windsor Mua | 25,000 | 1.61 ppb |
| Aqua Nj - Lawrence | 8,655 | 0 (not detected) |
| Hightstown Water Department | 5,400 | 0.57 ppb |
| Pennington W Dept | 2,600 | 1 ppb |
| Hopewell Boro W Dept | 2,035 | 0 (not detected) |
| Lawrenceville School | 1,200 | 0 (not detected) |
| Mercer County Correctional Center | 860 | 0 (not detected) |
| Washington Crossing Park Estates | 356 | 1.4 ppb |
| Robbinsville Twp - Newtown Village | 300 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Trenton, NJ
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Trenton, 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 Trenton Water Works 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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. More in what a past exceedance means today.