Watertown City, NY
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 6.3 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. 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.
About Watertown City
Watertown City serves about 27,861 people through 8,000 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Jefferson County, New York. EPA system ID: NY2202346; phone on file: 315-785-7845. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Watertown City's lead record
That is up 4.5 ppb from 1.8 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Watertown City is 16 ppb across 7 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 6.3 ppb |
| 2022 | 1.8 ppb |
| 2019 | 12 ppb over 10 |
| 2018 | 6.3 ppb |
| 2017 | 10 ppb |
| 2017 | 14 ppb over 10 |
| 2016 | 16 ppb over 15 |
Against other New York systems
Of the 2,077 New York systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.5 ppb; 17 are over 15 ppb right now and 165 have gone over at some point. Watertown City's 6.3 ppb sits at the 91st percentile in New York and the 94th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
56 other systems share Jefferson County; 2 of them have a higher latest lead result than Watertown City. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Fort Drum | 34,000 | 0.4 ppb |
| Leray Town Wd 1, 2, 4 | 7,140 | 3.3 ppb |
| Carthage Village | 3,600 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cape Vincent Town Wd 1 & 5 | 2,600 | - |
| Sackets Harbor Village | 2,200 | 1.2 ppb |
| Clayton Village | 2,100 | 1.8 ppb |
| Adams Village | 2,000 | 4.3 ppb |
| Alexandria Bay Village | 1,900 | 2.6 ppb |
| Pamelia Town Wd 4 & 5 | 1,857 | 4.1 ppb |
| Philadelphia Village | 1,800 | 1.5 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Watertown, NY 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 Watertown City 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. The lead result guide covers how utilities pick the homes they sample. Why an old exceedance still matters: over the limit before, under it now.