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Lancaster Woods Condominiums

What EPA’s and Massachusetts’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
120 people
Connections
30
Water source
Groundwater
Based in
Lancaster, MA
County
Worcester
Owner
Private
Hardness
Soft
The ZIP code it serves

01523

The short answer

2 results are above the health goal. The worst: Arsenic, above the health goal. 1 health-based violation since 2016.

What handles it

What was found

Lead and copper: EPA SDWIS monitoring periods ending 2010 to 2025.

Arsenic, fluoride, chromium (total) and nitrate: Massachusetts’s own results, samples taken from March 30, 2020 to Aug. 18, 2026, with EPA’s 2012 to 2019 file for earlier years.

Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) and haloacetic acids (HAA5): EPA’s compliance monitoring file, samples taken from Aug. 27, 2019 to Aug. 27, 2019. Newer results are in the utility’s annual water quality report.

Above the health goal2

Arsenic

Comes from the source

Above the health goal

1.5ppb

Highest yearly average, 2020 to 2026

2026: not found

Averaged by year, the highest was 1.5 ppb, in 2020: below EPA’s legal limit of 10 ppb, but above its health goal of zero. Its highest single sample was 3.0 ppb. In 2026, the latest year on file, it wasn’t found in any of its three samples. Earlier, from 2012 to 2019, EPA’s file shows a highest yearly average of 9.3 ppb, in 2019.

What handles it

  • NSF/ANSI 58 look for “Arsenic (Pentavalent)<=50 ppb Reduction”
  • NSF/ANSI 53 look for “Arsenic (Pentavalent)<=50 ppb Reduction”

Lead

Comes from pipes, often your own

Above the health goal

1.5ppb

90th percentile, 2023 to 2025

In the latest period, 9 in 10 homes sampled were at or below 1.5 ppb, below EPA’s action level of 15 ppb. The action level drops to 10 ppb on Nov. 1, 2027. EPA’s health goal for lead is zero.

What handles it

Below EPA’s limits2

Fluoride

Forms or is added in treatment

Below EPA’s limits

0.2ppm

Highest yearly average, 2020 to 2026

2026: not found

Averaged by year, the highest was 0.2 ppm, in 2020, below EPA’s legal limit of 4.0 ppm. In 2026, the latest year on file, it wasn’t found in its one sample.

What handles it

Total trihalomethanes (TTHM)

Forms or is added in treatment

Below EPA’s limits

0.57ppb

Highest yearly average, 2019

Averaged by year, the highest was 0.57 ppb, in 2019, below EPA’s legal limit of 80 ppb. That is the only year on file.

What handles it

  • NSF/ANSI 53 look for “Trihalomethanes (TTHM) Reduction”
  • NSF/ANSI 58 look for “Trihalomethanes (TTHM) Reduction”
3 compounds tested and not foundBelow the reporting level in every sample. Not found is not the same as zero.
  • Chromium (total)
  • Haloacetic acids (HAA5)
  • Nitrate

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.”

  • NSF/ANSI 53

    Claims: Arsenic (Pentavalent)<=50 ppb Reduction, Lead Reduction

    For: Arsenic, Lead

    Other certifiers’ wording: Arsenic (III) (50 ppb influent level)

  • NSF/ANSI 58

    Claims: Arsenic (Pentavalent)<=50 ppb Reduction, Lead Reduction

    For: Arsenic, Lead

    Other certifiers’ wording: Arsenic (Pentavalent)<=300 ppb Reduction; Arsenic (V) (300 ppb influent level)

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

The best reverse osmosis systems, ranked

The best water filters for lead, ranked

Hardness

Soft, 51 mg/L (3 grains per gallon), at its one sampling point, 2018 to 2021.

Hardness is calcium and magnesium. EPA sets no limit for it: it shows up as scale on fixtures and in water heaters, and as soap that won’t lather. USGS calls water above 60 mg/L moderately hard, above 120 hard and above 180 very hard.

Softeners compared at 3 grains per gallon, salt includedSoftener or salt-free conditioner?Massachusetts water hardness, utility by utility

Violations since 2016

Contaminant or ruleTypePeriodMeasuredStatus
Revised Total Coliform RuleFixes required after coliform results were not made on time.EPA: Treatment Technique, Corrective/Expedited Actions (RTCR)Oct. 1, 2018—Resolved
Health-based violations only. Resolved and archived mean the utility returned to compliance or the state closed the record. 3 monitoring or reporting violations not shown.

What this report can’t tell you

  • Everything else. Arsenic, fluoride, chromium (total) and nitrate results here are Massachusetts’s own from 2020 on, with EPA’s national file for 2012 to 2019. Total trihalomethanes (TTHM) and haloacetic acids (HAA5) come from EPA’s file alone, which ends in 2019. Lancaster Woods Condominiums’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; Massachusetts’s results run from March 30, 2020 to Aug. 18, 2026; EPA’s compliance samples are from Aug. 27, 2019 to Aug. 27, 2019.

Testing your own tap

Lancaster Woods Condominiums’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 Massachusetts certifies.

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

  • Eurofins Ayer

    Ayer, MA · about 8 miles

    Certified for bacteria, nitrate, minerals and other inorganics

    (978) 391-4428

  • Eurofins-Worcester

    Worcester, MA · about 13 miles

    Certified for bacteria

    (401) 461-7181

  • Pace Analytical LLC-Westborough

    Westborough, MA · about 15 miles

    Certified for bacteria, nitrate, minerals and other inorganics

    (508) 898-9220

All 81 certified labs for Massachusetts

Sources

PWSID MA2147008. Rebuilt from EPA data on Oct. 18, 2026.

Also in Worcester County

All Massachusetts utilities

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