Washington Fire District, VT
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.6 ppb (monitoring period 2023-2025). 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.
Who runs the water here
Washington Fire District serves about 170 people through 65 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Orange County, Vermont. EPA system ID: VT0005185; phone on file: 802-249-3004. 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 2024 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Washington Fire District is 2 ppb across 6 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0.6 ppb |
| 2024 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 0.8 ppb |
| 2018 | 2 ppb |
| 2017 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 2 ppb |
How Washington Fire District compares
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. Washington Fire District's 0.6 ppb sits at the 34th percentile in Vermont and the 45th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
17 other systems share Orange County; 7 of them have a higher latest lead result than Washington Fire District. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Randolph Village | 2,700 | 0 (not detected) |
| Bradford Village Water System | 1,512 | 3.1 ppb |
| Randolph Center Water System | 1,138 | 1.5 ppb |
| Williamstown Water Dept | 985 | 2.7 ppb |
| Fairlee Town Water | 967 | 0 (not detected) |
| Wells River Water System | 490 | 0 (not detected) |
| Newbury Village Inc | 480 | 1.6 ppb |
| Chelsea Water System | 450 | 5.6 ppb |
| Mobile Acres Mhp | 252 | 0 (not detected) |
| East Thetford Water Co | 250 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Washington, 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 Washington Fire District 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.