Public Drinking Water

Lead may get into your drinking water from the plumbing from the water main to your home and from the type of plumbing and fixtures inside your home. 

Your water utility will know what the pipes are made of from their service line to your meter, but they do not know what pipes you have inside your home. This online tool from NPR may help you find out if there are lead pipes in your home.

You are more likely to have lead in your water if you have:

• Signs of corrosion, such as a metallic taste to water or blue-green staining
• Low pH (acidic) and low alkalinity levels in your water
• Older plumbing or water fixtures
• Drawn water from somewhere other than a kitchen or drinking faucet
• A connected to a lead service line

What are public water systems required to do?

The Environmental Protection Agency's action level for lead in water is 0.015 milligrams per liter (mg/L). This means a public water system must reduce the lead levels if more than 10% of the water samples from household taps have lead levels over 0.015 mg/L. However, there is no safe level of lead in drinking water. Vermont has set a health advisory level for lead to the lowest level that can be detected, which is 0.001 mg/L. 

Public water systems must inventory all service lines (the pipes that deliver drinking water from the public water main to your home) in Vermont by October 2024. This is meant to help public water systems find and replace lead service lines. Your water utility must inform you about opportunities to replace a lead service line and financial assistance programs. Contact your water utility if you would like to know more about your service line. 

Learn more about the Department of Environmental Conservation's lead service line inventory project.

What should I do?

The Health Department recommends testing your water for lead. Test your water for lead by ordering a test kit. If you have lead in your water at or above 0.001 mg/L, the Health Department recommends treating your water to lower lead levels in your water. 

Learn more about testing and treating your water for lead

Disinfectants are added to public water to protect public health from microorganisms in drinking water. Disinfection byproducts (DBPs) can form when naturally occurring organic carbon reacts with chemical disinfectants, such as chlorine, and may affect your health.

Learn more about DBPs

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large group of human-made chemicals that have been used in industry and consumer products worldwide since the 1950s. PFAS chemicals include PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonic acid).

Some PFAS do not break down easily and therefore stay in the environment for a very long time, especially in water. Some PFAS can stay in people’s bodies for a long time and cause health effects.

Act 21 (passed in 2019) requires approximately 650 Public Community and Non-Transient Non-Community water systems to test for PFAS.

Learn more about PFAS in drinking water