Community Water System · PWSID CT0500021

Essex Gardens

Serves 72 peopleGroundwaterOwner: PrivateFairfield, Connecticut
1 open treatment violation.

Open for: Lead service line inventory. EPA counts treatment-technique violations as health-based: a required protective step was not done. It is not a measurement of contamination.

On record since 1994: 42 violations. 2 treatment lapses · 17 missed or late tests · 23 notices or reports. Most recent began 2024-10-17.

None of them is a measurement of contaminated water.

For this year's test results, ask the utility for its annual Consumer Confidence Report. Every community system must publish one.

0Over the limit
2Treatment lapse1 open
17Missed or late test1 open
23Notice or report1 open

More violations on record than 90% of active water systems in Connecticut. Small systems with no staff chemist often rack up missed-test violations; big utilities rarely do.

The record, year by year

1994 · Treatment lapse: 11994 · Missed or late test: 21994 · Missed or late test: 219951997 · Missed or late test: 1200020052006 · Notice or report: 22006 · Notice or report: 22007 · Notice or report: 12009 · Notice or report: 120102012 · Notice or report: 12013 · Missed or late test: 12013 · Notice or report: 12014 · Missed or late test: 12015 · Missed or late test: 22015 · Missed or late test: 22015 · Notice or report: 120152016 · Missed or late test: 12016 · Notice or report: 22016 · Notice or report: 22017 · Missed or late test: 42017 · Missed or late test: 42017 · Missed or late test: 42017 · Missed or late test: 42017 · Notice or report: 22017 · Notice or report: 22018 · Missed or late test: 12018 · Notice or report: 32018 · Notice or report: 32018 · Notice or report: 32019 · Missed or late test: 12019 · Notice or report: 32019 · Notice or report: 32019 · Notice or report: 32020 · Missed or late test: 12020 · Notice or report: 120202021 · Notice or report: 22021 · Notice or report: 22023 · Missed or late test: 12023 · Notice or report: 22023 · Notice or report: 22024 · Treatment lapse: 12024 · Missed or late test: 12024 · Notice or report: 12025
One square = one violation, by the year it began. Empty columns are years with nothing on EPA's record.
5% treatment lapse · 240% missed or late test · 1755% notice or report · 23

Across Connecticut, 76% of violations are missed or late tests and 1% are water over a limit.

Lead & copper at the tap

Utilities sample taps in homes most likely to have lead pipes, and report the 90th-percentile result: 9 in 10 homes sampled came in at or below this number. Above the red line (the action level) the utility must act. The action level is not a safe level; EPA's health goal for lead is zero. EPA's file does not date these results, so they are shown highest first.

Lead, 90th percentile 12 results on file · action level 15 ppb

11 ppb
8 ppb
5.9 ppb
5 ppb
4.9 ppb
4.7 ppb
4.1 ppb
3.2 ppb
2.3 ppb
1.8 ppb
0 ppb
0 ppb

Copper, 90th percentile 1 result on file · action level 1.3 mg/L

1.4 mg/L

Open now (3)

  1. 2024-10-17Lead service line inventoryRPTOpen
  2. 2024-10-17Lead service line inventoryTTOpen
  3. 1994-01-01Lead and Copper RuleInitial, Follow-up, or Routine Source Water M/ROpen

Every violation on record

  1. 2024-10-17Lead service line inventoryRPTOpen
  2. 2024-10-17Lead service line inventoryTTOpen
  3. 2024-09-29Lead and Copper RuleLead Consumer NoticeBack in compliance
  4. 2023-12-30Lead and Copper RuleLead Consumer NoticeBack in compliance
  5. 2023-08-10Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Inadequate ReportingBack in compliance
  6. 2023-07-01Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Complete Failure to ReportBack in compliance
  7. 2021-08-10Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Inadequate ReportingBack in compliance
  8. 2021-07-01Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Complete Failure to ReportBack in compliance
  9. 2020-12-30Lead and Copper RuleLead Consumer NoticeBack in compliance
  10. 2020-08-10Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Inadequate ReportingBack in compliance
  11. 2019-12-30Lead and Copper RuleLead Consumer NoticeBack in compliance
  12. 2019-08-10Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Inadequate ReportingBack in compliance
  13. 2019-07-01Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Complete Failure to ReportBack in compliance
  14. 2019-01-13Public NoticePN Violation for NPDWR ViolationBack in compliance
  15. 2018-12-30Lead and Copper RuleLead Consumer NoticeBack in compliance
  16. 2018-09-23Public NoticePN Violation for NPDWR ViolationBack in compliance
  17. 2018-08-10Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Inadequate ReportingBack in compliance
  18. 2018-07-01Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Complete Failure to ReportBack in compliance
  19. 2017-12-30Lead and Copper RuleLead Consumer NoticeBack in compliance
  20. 2017-08-10Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Inadequate ReportingBack in compliance
  21. 2017-07-01Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Complete Failure to ReportBack in compliance
  22. 2017-07-01Revised Total Coliform RuleMONBack in compliance
  23. 2017-06-01Revised Total Coliform RuleMONBack in compliance
  24. 2017-05-01Revised Total Coliform RuleMONBack in compliance
  25. 2016-12-30Lead and Copper RuleLead Consumer NoticeBack in compliance
Show the other 17 entries
  1. 2016-08-10Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Inadequate ReportingBack in compliance
  2. 2016-07-01Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Complete Failure to ReportBack in compliance
  3. 2015-12-30Lead and Copper RuleLead Consumer NoticeBack in compliance
  4. 2015-11-01Coliform (TCR)Monitoring, Routine Major (TCR)Back in compliance
  5. 2015-07-01Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Complete Failure to ReportBack in compliance
  6. 2014-12-30Lead and Copper RuleLead Consumer NoticeBack in compliance
  7. 2013-07-01Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Complete Failure to ReportBack in compliance
  8. 2013-01-01AsbestosMonitoring, RegularPeriod ended · no return to compliance on file
  9. 2012-07-01Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Complete Failure to ReportBack in compliance
  10. 2009-07-01Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Complete Failure to ReportBack in compliance
  11. 2007-07-01Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Complete Failure to ReportBack in compliance
  12. 2006-12-31Public NoticePN Violation for NPDWR ViolationBack in compliance
  13. 2006-07-01Consumer Confidence RuleCCR Complete Failure to ReportBack in compliance
  14. 1997-01-01Lead and Copper RuleInitial Tap Sampling for Pb and CuBack in compliance
  15. 1994-07-01Lead and Copper RuleInitial, Follow-up, or Routine Source Water M/RBack in compliance
  16. 1994-07-01Lead and Copper RuleOCCT/SOWT Study/RecommendationBack in compliance
  17. 1994-01-01Lead and Copper RuleInitial, Follow-up, or Routine Source Water M/ROpen

System details

Population served72
Service connections24
Water sourceGroundwater
System typeCommunity Water System
OwnerPrivate
StatusActive
CityFairfield
EPA ZIP on file06825

Areas served

  • Essex, Middlesex County

Reading this record

Essex Gardens is a community water system that draws from groundwater and serves about 72 people in Fairfield, Connecticut. Everything above comes from the EPA's Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), where states report every violation by every public water system.

Four kinds of violation. Only one is a measurement of the water: over the limit means a test came back above a legal maximum (an MCL). A treatment lapse means a required protective step was not done, such as disinfection, filtration, fixing a defect an inspector found, or filing a lead-pipe inventory. A missed or late test means a required test was skipped or never reported. That is the most common kind, and the most misread: it does not mean the water was bad, and it does not mean the water was fine. Notices and reports covers public notices and the annual Consumer Confidence Report.

Status. “Back in compliance” means the state recorded a return to compliance. “Period ended” means the violation's compliance period is over but no return to compliance was ever filed, which is common in older records. EPA's federal copy lags state records by months, so call the utility for anything current.