Whately Water Department, MA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.5 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.
About Whately Water Department
Whately Water Department serves about 900 people through 460 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Franklin County, Massachusetts. EPA system ID: MA1337010; phone on file: 4136653080. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Every lead result on file
That is down 2.6 ppb from 4.1 ppb in the period ending 2024. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Whately Water Department is 4.1 ppb across 9 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.5 ppb |
| 2024 | 4.1 ppb |
| 2023 | 1.3 ppb |
| 2021 | 1.86 ppb |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 2.4 ppb |
| 2019 | 3.1 ppb |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
Where this result ranks
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. Whately Water Department's 1.5 ppb sits at the 44th percentile in Massachusetts and the 64th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
24 other systems share Franklin County; 19 of them have a higher latest lead result than Whately Water Department. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Greenfield Water Department | 17,768 | 3.32 ppb |
| Turners Falls Water Dept | 8,080 | 1.9 ppb |
| Orange Water Dept | 6,526 | 2.6 ppb |
| South Deerfield Water Supply District | 3,800 | 3 ppb |
| Sunderland Water District | 3,190 | 3.9 ppb |
| Shelburne Falls Fire District | 1,806 | 2.8 ppb |
| Bernardston Fire Water Dist | 1,471 | 1.3 ppb |
| Deerfield Fire District | 1,300 | 1.4 ppb |
| Northfield Water District | 800 | 0 (not detected) |
| Northfield Mt Hermon School | 750 | 2.64 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; South Deerfield, 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 Whately Water Department 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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.