Water quality · New York
Water quality in New York
4 of the 26 New York ZIPs matched to an EPA SDWIS community water system report a health-based violation in the last 3 years. SDWIS reports the system serving the county, never an address-level test, and never private wells.
Last verified 2026-09-24 · methodology
Water quality by ZIP code in New York
The largest community water system EPA lists for each ZIP's county, and its health-based violations in the last 3 years.
County-level figures from EPA SDWIS, joined to each ZIP by county. None of them is a measurement at a specific address.
What lands here
Pages show the largest community water system on record for the ZIP's county, its PWSID and population served, and its health-based and total violations in the last 3 years. Lead and copper sampling results are not shown; your utility's annual water quality report (CCR) has them.
Source & refresh
EPA SDWIS. Refreshed quarterly (federal mandate). Primary source →
New York top concern
Lead service lines (older cities), coastal flood
New York has LCRR lead-service-line obligations in NYC (DEP), Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany. Coastal AE/VE zones along NYC, Long Island, Hudson Valley. Catskill/Delaware watersheds give NYC water unusual quality but require ongoing EPA SDWIS oversight.
See New York state page for the full state-level rollup across all 12 dimensions.
Read more on water quality
Editorial deep-dives explaining the source data, its limits, and how to read it.
Flood zones explained — what AE, X, and VE actually mean
Plain-English guide to FEMA flood-zone codes (A, AE, AH, V, VE, X, X-shaded). What the 1% and 0.2% annual-chance zones mean for your property and your insurance.
EPA Radon Zones — what 1, 2, and 3 mean and when you should test
EPA classifies every US county into Zone 1 (high), Zone 2 (moderate), or Zone 3 (low) for radon. Plain-English guide to the classifications and at-home testing.
EPA AQI categories explained — what 0–50 Good through 301–500 Hazardous mean
Plain-English guide to the six EPA Air Quality Index categories: 0–50 Good, 51–100 Moderate, 101–150 Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups, 151–200 Unhealthy, 201–300 Very Unhealthy, 301–500 Hazardous — what each level means and who is at risk.
Lead and Copper Rule 2024 — the federal lead-pipe inventory mandate
The 2024 Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR) require every US community water system to inventory and report lead service lines. Plain-English guide.