Essex County tap water
12 of 16 water systems serving Essex County with full PFAS testing averaged above a 2024 federal PFAS level at one or more sampling points.
- 21 community water systems list this county as served; 16 serve 3,300+ people with full PFAS testing.
- 8 had a health-based violation since 2021-10-26.
Largest systems serving this county
| System | Source | People served (whole system) | PFAS above a 2024 level? | Violations since 2021-10-26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newark Water department | Surface water | 294,274 | Yes | 1 |
| NJ American Water - Short Hills | Surface water | 217,230 | Yes | 0 |
| East Orange Water Commission | Groundwater | 75,000 | Yes | 0 |
| Bloomfield Water department | Purchased surface water | 53,315 | No | 3 |
| Montclair Water Bureau | Purchased surface water | 40,150 | No | 1 |
| Orange Water dept | Purchased surface water | 30,134 | Yes | 0 |
| Livingston Twp Div of Water | Purchased surface water | 27,391 | Yes | 0 |
| South Orange Water department | Purchased surface water | 16,964 | Yes | 0 |
| Verona Water department | Purchased surface water | 13,641 | Yes | 2 |
| Cedar Grove Water dept | Purchased surface water | 12,900 | No | 3 |
| West Caldwell Water department | Purchased surface water | 10,759 | Yes | 3 |
| Caldwell Water dept | Purchased surface water | 9,027 | Yes | 0 |
Which one is yours? A county usually has several utilities. Your bill or your utility's annual water-quality report names yours. Population is for the whole system, which can cross county lines.
Not medical or legal advice. UCMR 5 results are screening data, not compliance determinations.
Sources and freshness
Public-water-system facts, violations and lead/copper results: EPA ECHO SDWA download (SDWIS snapshot 2026-10-13). PFAS and lithium results: EPA UCMR 5 final data (sampling 2023–2025). Both are U.S. government works, downloaded 2026-10-26. Numbers are computed by the published method; the same fields are in the open data files.