FS
First State Lens
Civic Analytics Lab · Delaware
EPA SDWIS · DRINKING WATER
Drinking Water · Delaware

Is my water safe?

Updated

Find your public water system and read its drinking water record from EPA: every violation, its dates, and whether the state recorded it as resolved. Delaware regulates 1,362 public water systems; this page covers the 204 active community systems (where people live) and every other system with a violation on record, 463 in all, as retrieved October 14, 2026.

How to read this. These are violations recorded in EPA's Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) for the public water systems Delaware regulates, shown without interpretation. A health-based violation means a contaminant went over a federal limit or a required treatment step was not met; most other violations are tests or reports that were missed or late. A returned to compliance date means the state recorded the violation as resolved. A past violation does not describe the water today. Systems are listed alphabetically; we rank none of them. EPA's data syncs about every three months, so a very recent violation may not appear yet. Lead service lines are covered separately below. First State Lens draws no conclusions. We show you the data; you decide.

What these records can and cannot tell you

START HERE

No website can tell you whether the water in your glass is safe right now. Two public records help you judge for yourself. Your water system's yearly water quality report, the Consumer Confidence Report, lists what was found in your water and the federal limit for each contaminant. EPA's violation record, on this site, shows when your system broke a drinking water rule and whether the state recorded the problem as resolved.

  1. Find your water supplier's name on your water bill.
  2. Find that system in the list below and open its page.
  3. Get its yearly water quality report from your supplier. EPA explains how to find and read it.
  4. For questions, contact your supplier or Delaware's Office of Drinking Water. The state also publishes system records in Drinking Water Watch.

On a private well? A private well is not a public water system, so it is not in these records. The Division of Public Health has information for private well owners.

Find your water system

ALPHABETICAL BY COUNTY

Homes on public water are served by a community water system. These are the 204 community systems EPA lists as active in Delaware, grouped by the county EPA records as served.

New Castle County (31)

Kent County (62)

Sussex County (111)

Other systems with a violation on record (259): inactive systems, and schools, workplaces, restaurants and campgrounds with their own water

Source: EPA SDWIS water system records and areas served, Delaware systems, retrieved October 14, 2026. Names are shown as EPA records them, in readable capitals; each page also shows the exact EPA name.

Statewide figures

EPA SDWIS · AS OF OCTOBER 14, 2026
Public water systems on record
1,362
Every public water system Delaware regulates, active or not.
SOURCE · EPA SDWIS · OCTOBER 14, 2026
Active community water systems
204
Systems that serve the same people year-round where they live.
SOURCE · EPA SDWIS · OCTOBER 14, 2026
Systems with a violation on record
400
Systems with at least one recorded violation, recent or historical, out of 1,362.
SOURCE · EPA SDWIS · OCTOBER 14, 2026
Violations on record
1,766
All recorded violations, recent and historical, for Delaware systems.
SOURCE · EPA SDWIS · OCTOBER 14, 2026
Health-based violations
687
Recorded violations where a contaminant went over a federal limit or a required treatment step was not met.
SOURCE · EPA SDWIS · OCTOBER 14, 2026
No return-to-compliance date
101
Recorded violations with no date showing the state recorded them as resolved. Some belong to systems that are no longer active.
SOURCE · EPA SDWIS · OCTOBER 14, 2026

Source: EPA SDWIS violation records for systems with Delaware as the regulating state (PWSIDs beginning DE), retrieved October 14, 2026. Download the data as JSON (the 463 systems listed here and their violations; systems with no violation on record that are not community systems are counted but not listed).

What the terms mean

EPA DEFINITIONS
Community water system
Serves the same people year-round where they live, such as a town, a utility or a manufactured home community.
Non-transient non-community water system
Serves at least 25 of the same people for at least six months a year where they are not living, such as a school or a workplace.
Transient non-community water system
Serves people who do not stay long, such as a restaurant, a gas station or a campground.
Maximum contaminant level (MCL)
A contaminant was measured above its federal limit.
Treatment technique (TT)
A required treatment step or process was not met.
Monitoring and reporting (MR, MON, RPT)
A required test or report was missed or late.
Returned to compliance
The state recorded the violation as resolved, on the date shown.

Source: EPA drinking water regulations and contaminants and EPA SDWIS overview.

Lead service lines

CHECK YOUR UTILITY
Delaware publishes service line inventories by address on a statewide map.

The state's Lead Service Line Inventory Public Transparency Dashboard shows what each public water system reported about the service line at an address, on both the utility side and the private side. Search your street address there. Some utilities also publish their own inventories, linked below. Checked October 14, 2026.

DELAWARE PUBLISHES NO CENTRAL ADDRESS-LEVEL LEAD-LINE DATASET · EACH UTILITY MAINTAINS ITS OWN INVENTORY