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Essex Gardens

What EPA’s and CDC’s records show in this utility’s water: nitrate, arsenic and other regulated chemicals; lead and copper; and violations since 2016, with the certification that handles each result.

Serves
72 people
Connections
24
Water source
Groundwater
Based in
Essex, CT
County
Middlesex
Owner
Private
The ZIP code it serves

06442

The short answer

1 result is above EPA’s legal limit, and 1 more is above the health goal. The worst: Copper, above the action level. 1 health-based violation since 2016.

What handles it

What was found

Lead and copper: EPA SDWIS monitoring periods ending 1994 to 2023.

Uranium, nitrate and arsenic: Connecticut’s yearly averages per water system, as CDC’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Network publishes them, 2020 to 2023, with EPA’s 2012 to 2019 file for earlier years.

Chromium (total) and fluoride: EPA’s compliance monitoring file, samples taken from April 23, 2014 to April 24, 2017. Newer results are in the utility’s annual water quality report.

Above the legal limit1

Copper

Comes from pipes, often your own

Above the action level

1.4ppm

90th percentile, 2023

In the latest period, 9 in 10 homes sampled were at or below 1.4 ppm, above EPA’s action level of 1.3 ppm.

What handles it

Above the health goal1

Uranium

Comes from the source

Above the health goal

2.8ppb

Highest yearly average, 2022

Averaged by year, the highest was 2.8 ppb, in 2022: below EPA’s legal limit of 30 ppb, but above its health goal of zero. That is the only year on file. Earlier, from 2012 to 2019, EPA’s file shows a highest yearly average of 2.5 ppb, in 2019.

What handles it

Below EPA’s limits1

Nitrate

Comes from the source

Below EPA’s limits

1.3ppm

Highest yearly average, 2020 to 2023

Averaged by year, the highest was 1.3 ppm, in 2023, below EPA’s legal limit of 10 ppm. That was also the latest year on file. Earlier, from 2012 to 2019, EPA’s file shows a highest sample of 2.1 ppm, in 2017.

What handles it

  • NSF/ANSI 58 look for “Nitrate/Nitrite Reduction”
  • NSF/ANSI 53 look for “Nitrate/Nitrite (30 ppm challenge)”
4 compounds tested and not foundBelow the reporting level in every sample. Not found is not the same as zero.
  • Arsenic
  • Chromium (total)
  • Fluoride
  • Lead

What handles it

A certification covers specific claims, not a whole standard. Look for these claims on the certifier’s listing, not the box. Wording varies a little: NSF writes “Lead Reduction,” WQA just “Lead.”

At the tap, or for the whole house?

Lead and copper usually come from pipes and fixtures inside or near your home. A whole-house system sits where water enters, so it cannot catch what your own plumbing adds after it. For those, the filter that counts is the one at the tap. How whole-house systems compare.

Filters with those claims on a certifier’s listing

Disclosure: TapBuff earns a commission if you buy through some links on this page. It does not change which standard or filter we name. As an Amazon Associate, TapBuff earns from qualifying purchases. How TapBuff makes money

Compare five-year costs

Violations since 2016

Contaminant or ruleTypePeriodMeasuredStatus
Lead and Copper Rule RevisionsThe required inventory of lead service lines was not completed or submitted on time.EPA: LSL InventoryOct. 17, 2024—Unaddressed
Health-based violations only. Resolved and archived mean the utility returned to compliance or the state closed the record. 27 monitoring or reporting violations not shown.

What this report can’t tell you

  • Everything else. Uranium, nitrate and arsenic results here are Connecticut’s yearly averages as CDC publishes them, from 2020 on, with EPA’s national file for 2012 to 2019. Chromium (total) and fluoride come from EPA’s file alone, which ends in 2019. Essex Gardens’s own annual report, which it must send you every year, has newer results for those and the contaminants this page does not show.

  • Your own plumbing. Lead results are the 90th percentile across homes the utility samples. Your home’s service line, solder and fixtures decide yours. A certified lab test is the only way to know.

  • What it means for your health. This page reports what the records show and EPA’s limits and goals; it is not medical advice. If you are worried about a health effect, talk to a doctor or your local health department.

  • Anything after the latest data. SDWIS data is from 2026 Q3; UCMR 5 didn’t sample this utility; CDC’s yearly averages for Connecticut cover 2020 to 2023; EPA’s compliance samples are from April 23, 2014 to April 24, 2017.

Testing your own tap

Essex Gardens’s results are for the water it sends out. What your own service line, solder and fixtures add shows up only in a test of your tap, by a lab Connecticut certifies.

The 3 labs Connecticut certifies closest to the area Essex Gardens serves, in a straight line. Call first: certification is test by test, and not every lab takes samples from homeowners.

  • CorrTech Corrosion Laboratory

    Deep River, CT · about 3 miles

    Certified for minerals and other inorganics

    (860) 526-2610

  • Eastern Analytical Laboratory, Inc.

    Old Saybrook, CT · about 4 miles

    Certified for bacteria, nitrate, metals, minerals and other inorganics

    (860) 388-2378

  • Environmental Consulting Lab

    Madison, CT · about 10 miles

    Certified for bacteria, nitrate, metals, minerals and other inorganics, radioactivity

    (203) 245-0568

All 86 certified labs for Connecticut

Sources

PWSID CT0500021. Rebuilt from EPA data on Oct. 18, 2026.

Also in Middlesex County

All Connecticut utilities

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