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Hillsborough Water Works

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
2,000 people
Connections
907
Water source
Surface water
Based in
Hillsborough, NH
County
Hillsborough
Owner
Local government
The ZIP code it serves

03244

The short answer

1 result is above EPA’s legal limit. The worst: Lead, above the action level. No health-based violations on file since 2016.

What handles it

What was found

Lead and copper: EPA SDWIS monitoring periods ending 1994 to 2010.

Haloacetic acids (HAA5), total trihalomethanes (TTHM), arsenic and nitrate: New Hampshire’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), fluoride and uranium: EPA’s compliance monitoring file, samples taken from July 9, 2014 to July 10, 2019. Newer results are in the utility’s annual water quality report.

Above the legal limit1

Lead

Comes from pipes, often your own

Above the action level

33ppb

90th percentile, 2008 to 2010

In the latest period, 9 in 10 homes sampled were at or below 33 ppb, above EPA’s action level of 15 ppb. The action level drops to 10 ppb on Nov. 1, 2027, and this result is at or above that. EPA’s health goal for lead is zero.

What handles it

Below EPA’s limits2

Haloacetic acids (HAA5)

Forms or is added in treatment

Below EPA’s limits

23.8ppb

Highest yearly average, 2020 to 2023

2023 average: 16.7 ppb

Averaged by year, the highest was 23.8 ppb, in 2022, below EPA’s legal limit of 60 ppb. In 2023, the latest year on file, it averaged 16.7 ppb. Earlier, from 2012 to 2019, EPA’s file shows a highest yearly average of 22 ppb, in 2019, and EPA recorded violations in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

What handles it

No certification claim covers this compound yet.

Total trihalomethanes (TTHM)

Forms or is added in treatment

Below EPA’s limits

18.3ppb

Highest yearly average, 2020 to 2023

2023 average: 11.9 ppb

Averaged by year, the highest was 18.3 ppb, in 2022, below EPA’s legal limit of 80 ppb. In 2023, the latest year on file, it averaged 11.9 ppb. Earlier, from 2012 to 2019, EPA’s file shows a highest yearly average of 9.5 ppb, in 2019, and EPA recorded violations in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

What handles it

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

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

The best water filters for lead, ranked

Violations since 2016

No health-based violations on file with EPA since 2016. There are 2 monitoring or reporting violations: a sample missed, late or not reported.

What this report can’t tell you

  • Everything else. Haloacetic acids (HAA5), total trihalomethanes (TTHM), arsenic and nitrate results here are New Hampshire’s yearly averages as CDC publishes them, from 2020 on, with EPA’s national file for 2012 to 2019. Chromium (total), fluoride and uranium come from EPA’s file alone, which ends in 2019. Hillsborough Water Works’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 New Hampshire cover 2020 to 2023; EPA’s compliance samples are from July 9, 2014 to July 10, 2019.

Testing your own tap

Hillsborough Water Works’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 New Hampshire certifies.

The 3 labs New Hampshire certifies closest to the area Hillsborough Water Works serves, in a straight line. Call first: certification is test by test, and not every lab takes samples from homeowners.

  • New Hampshire DHHS Public Health Laboratories

    Concord, NH · about 18 miles

    Certified for bacteria, nitrate, lead and copper, metals, minerals and other inorganics, organic chemicals, disinfection byproducts, radioactivity

    (603) 271-3445

  • Eurofins Concord

    Concord, NH · about 20 miles

    Certified for bacteria, nitrate, lead and copper, metals, minerals and other inorganics, organic chemicals, disinfection byproducts

    (603) 228-0525

  • Nelson Analytical Lab - Keene Division

    Swanzey, NH · about 22 miles

    Certified for bacteria

    (603) 357-2577

All 63 certified labs for New Hampshire

Sources

PWSID NH1141010. Rebuilt from EPA data on Oct. 18, 2026.

Towns it serves

Also in Hillsborough County

All New Hampshire utilities

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