How many water violations are in Essex County?

Essex County has 3,080 total drinking water violations across 67 water systems, of which 287 are health-based violations. 91.0% of systems have at least one violation.

How many people get water from Essex County systems?

Water systems in Essex County serve approximately 908,499 people through 67 public water systems.

Has PFAS been detected in Essex County water?

Under EPA UCMR5, 20 of 32 tested systems in Essex County had at least one PFAS detection (62.5% of the UCMR5-tested subset - not of all 67 SDWIS systems).

What types of water sources supply Essex County?

Water systems in Essex County use GW (38 systems), SW (29 systems) as their primary water sources.

Are health-based violations serious?

Health-based violations indicate that drinking water exceeded Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) set by the EPA or failed treatment technique requirements. 9.3% of Essex County's violations are health-based. Among counties with any SDWIS violations, this extract puts Essex County in the lower health-based share band. Not all violations indicate immediate health risk, but they require corrective action.

Counties → Massachusetts

Essex County, Massachusetts

Compiled by PlainWater · May 15, 2026

SDWIS compliance plate

Sheet MA009 · Essex County 67 sys · 3,080 viol · #65/3254

VIOL-SEVERE · HEALTH-LOW · RANK-TOP · BELOW-PEER · PFAS-HIGH · SRC-GW · SYS-MID · BOOK-FULL

VIOL-SEVERE 91.0% flagged
HEALTH-LOW 9.3% health
RANK-TOP #65/3254
BELOW-PEER 1.9 pp cleaner
PFAS-HIGH 62.5% detect
SRC-GW GW lead 57%
SYS-MID 67 systems
BOOK-FULL 7/7 fields

Nearest flagged-rate peer: Norfolk County (+ 1.9 pp flagged-rate)

According to EPA SDWIS county population served used on /counties, Essex County ranks #65 of 3,254 counties by people served, and #3 of 14 counties in Massachusetts. See methodology · corpus placement.

Essex County standing, lower-flagged corpus third

Flagged-system rate 91.0% is at or below the corpus lower third (≤ 92.7% flagged) across 2,973 counties with ≥3 SDWIS systems . Health-based share 9.3% is health-based share at or below the lower third (≤ 10.3%) . UCMR5 detect rate 62.5% is UCMR5 detect rate above the tested-pool upper third (> 33.3%) . Population served ranks #65 of 3,254 · #3 of 14 in Massachusetts.

Water Systems

System Name	Population	Violations	PFAS
Lynn Water and Sewer Comm	101,253	39	Detected
Salem and Beverly Water Supply Board	90,330	19	-
Lawrence Water Works	88,877	296	Detected
Haverhill Water Dept	63,235	80	Clean
Peabody Water Dept.	54,481	180	Detected
Methuen Water Dept	53,059	51	Detected
Beverly Water Dept	47,461	9	Detected
Salem Water Department	44,480	7	Detected
Gloucester Public Utility Division	37,440	171	Clean
Andover Water Dept	36,569	7	Detected
North Andover Water Dept	30,915	56	Clean
Danvers Water Dept.	28,087	56	Detected
Saugus Water Dept. (Mwra)	27,082	26	Clean
Marblehead Water Dept. (Mwra)	20,441	13	Clean
Newburyport Water Department	20,335	74	Detected
Salisbury Water Division	20,000	47	Detected
Amesbury Dpw Water Div.	17,366	38	Clean
Swampscott Water Dept. (Mwra)	15,175	28	Clean
Ipswich Dpu Water Dept	13,090	75	Detected
Rockport Water Dept	10,000	27	Clean
Georgetown Water Department	8,766	100	Clean
Lynnfield Center Water District	8,569	154	Detected
Hamilton Water Dept	7,377	84	Detected
Middleton Water Dept.	7,255	18	Detected
Merrimac Water Department	7,193	276	Detected
Groveland Water Department	6,743	46	Detected
Rowley Water Department	6,283	112	Detected
Topsfield Water Department	5,435	72	Detected
Manchester by the Sea Dpw	5,170	94	Detected
Lynnfield Water Dist. (Mwra)	4,820	14	Clean
Wenham Water Dept.	3,942	23	Detected
Essex Water Dept.	3,675	43	-
Nahant Water Dept. (Mwra)	3,334	29	Clean
West Newbury Water Department	3,080	11	Clean
Byfield Water District	2,228	35	-
Pequot Highlands	900	0	-
Rocky Mountain Spring Water Vending	500	0	-
Spofford Pond School	486	67	-
Harry Lee Cole School	439	91	-
Sagamore Spring Golf Club, Inc.	250	2	-
The Water Store of Saugus (Vnd)	250	5	-
Boxford Community Store Inc	200	10	-
Ipswich River Wildlife Refuge	180	0	-
The Village Store Bldg.	150	54	-
Andrews Farm Water Co.,inc.	150	163	-
Essex Meeting and Retreat Center, LLC	150	8	-
Four Mile Village	133	133	-
Far Corner Farm Golf Course Inc.	120	7	-
Boxford Meeting Place	120	8	-
Ingaldsby Bakery and Farm Stand	100	8	-

Compare beyond Massachusetts

Lower-flagged peers for Essex County

Cross-state counties nearest Essex County on flagged-system share (91.0%) and cumulative violation count (3,080). In-state neighbours stay on the compliance plate above.

Similar flagged-system rate

Nearest cross-state counties by % of SDWIS systems with at least one violation on record.

4 peers

Similar violation load

Nearest cross-state counties by cumulative SDWIS violation count (all systems in the county).

4 peers

Read our methodology · Check your water system - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from EPA SDWIS and UCMR5 PFAS monitoring data. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainWater

Compiled by PlainWater, Drinking Water Quality Editorial Process · May 15, 2026

Every figure on PlainWater is rendered directly from EPA SDWIS drinking-water data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on EPA SDWIS data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.