Watertown Department Of Public Works, MA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.06 ppb (monitoring period 2025-2025). 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.
Watertown Department Of Public Works at a glance
Watertown Department Of Public Works serves about 35,985 people through 7,662 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 Middlesex County, Massachusetts. EPA system ID: MA3314000; phone on file: 6179726420. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Watertown Department Of Public Works's lead record
That is down 1.8 ppb from 2.86 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Watertown Department Of Public Works is 10.8 ppb across 10 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb (1 over 10 ppb).
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.06 ppb |
| 2025 | 2.86 ppb |
| 2024 | 2.99 ppb |
| 2024 | 3.68 ppb |
| 2022 | 1.33 ppb |
| 2019 | 5.13 ppb |
| 2018 | 2.71 ppb |
| 2018 | 10.8 ppb over 10 |
| 2017 | 5.9 ppb |
| 2016 | 2.5 ppb |
Against other Massachusetts systems
Of the 535 Massachusetts systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.7 ppb; 13 are over 15 ppb right now and 66 have gone over at some point. Watertown Department Of Public Works's 1.06 ppb sits at the 35th percentile in Massachusetts and the 56th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
94 other systems share Middlesex County; 61 of them have a higher latest lead result than Watertown Department Of Public Works. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Lowell Regional Water Utility | 120,418 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cambridge Water Department | 118,214 | 8 ppb |
| Newton Water Dept. (Mwra) | 88,931 | 1.09 ppb |
| Somerville Water Dept. (Mwra) | 81,045 | 6.62 ppb |
| Framingham Water Dept. (Mwra) | 72,362 | 1.74 ppb |
| Malden Water Division (Mwra) | 66,263 | 9.74 ppb |
| Waltham Water Department | 65,218 | 2.24 ppb |
| Medford Water Dept. (Mwra) | 61,700 | 8.31 ppb |
| Everett Water Dept. (Mwra) | 49,075 | 1.25 ppb |
| Arlington Water Dept. (Mwra) | 46,308 | 2.68 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Watertown, MA 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 Department Of Public 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. What a 90th-percentile result does and does not tell you: how to read a lead result. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.