2025 Consumer Confidence Reports (CCR)

Report overview

Newport Water presents this water quality report for 2025. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, all water utilities must issue an annual Consumer Confidence Report so customers understand the quality of their drinking water. This is a snapshot of water quality from January 2025 through December 2025, including where your water comes from, what it contains, and how it compares to EPA standards.

In 2025, Newport Water conducted over 50,000 analyses to monitor 76 regulated and 87 unregulated drinking water contaminants. The tables below list only contaminants that were detected, even where the detected level was below the EPA maximum. The unregulated contaminant chlorate is also included. Newport Water has begun a chlorate monitoring program to prepare for any future EPA regulation or health advisory.

• 50,000+Analyses in 2025
• 76Regulated contaminants monitored
• 87Unregulated contaminants monitored
• 16 MGDCombined plant design capacity

Lead and copper monitoring at schools and child care

In anticipation of upcoming revisions to the EPA Lead and Copper Rule, Newport Water sampled all registered schools and child care facilities in the distribution network. This monitoring began in 2024 and was completed in 2025. Facilities were notified of any detection above 5 parts per billion, and follow-up sampling was offered to those locations. Detected ranges across all samples collected:

ND = Not Detected.

A lead service line inventory has been prepared and is available at https://tinyurl.com/NWD-Material.

About Newport Water

The original water works in Newport began in 1876. The Newport Water Works Company was incorporated in 1881 and was succeeded by the Newport Water Corporation in 1929. Since 1936 the City of Newport has owned and operated the system. The Newport Water Division, part of the City’s Utilities Department, operates and maintains the system. Newport Water operates as an enterprise fund, independent of the overall City budget. It is licensed by the RI Department of Health as Public Water Supplier No. 1592010 and is regulated by the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission.

Newport’s water supply

Newport Water draws raw water from nine surface reservoirs: North and South Easton Pond, Paradise Pond, Gardiner Pond, St. Mary’s Pond, Sisson Pond, Lawton Valley Reservoir, Nonquit Pond, and Watson Reservoir. These systems sit in a basin of 18.625 square miles (11,920 acres) of rural, forested, and some developed land across Newport, Middletown, Portsmouth, Tiverton, and Little Compton, interconnected through pipelines and pumping stations. Newport Water has purchased 350 acres of conservation easements to protect raw water quality.

Water is treated at either Station 1 Plant in Newport or the Lawton Valley Plant in Portsmouth. Combined design capacity is 16 million gallons of treated water per day.

Distribution system

The distribution system carries water throughout Newport, Middletown, and part of Portsmouth to each customer. Newport Water also provides wholesale water to the Portsmouth Water and Fire District and the U.S. Navy. The system includes approximately 14,500 services, 170 miles of water main, 3,300 valves, and 1,000 hydrants.

Source water assessments

In 2003 the University of Rhode Island, with RIDOH and other agencies, assessed threats within Newport Water’s watersheds and found the sources on Aquidneck Island and in Little Compton and Tiverton to be moderately susceptible to contamination. Newport Water updated the 2003 assessment in 2010. The complete Source Water Assessment Report is available at the office at 70 Halsey Street.

Cross-connection control plan

Cross-connections between public water supplies and non-potable sources are among the most significant threats in the water supply industry. A cross-connection control program protects the public supply from backflow or back-siphonage from a building’s internal plumbing. The Federal Safe Drinking Water Act makes the water supplier primarily responsible for preventing unapproved sources from entering the public system. Newport Water adopted a Cross-Connection Control Plan in March 2010, available at www.cityofnewport.com/crossconnectcontrolprogram.

2025 detected contaminants

This table shows combined water-quality results for both the Station 1 (Newport) and Lawton Valley (Portsmouth) systems, January 1 through December 31, 2025. Every regulated contaminant detected is listed, with the maximum level allowed (MCL), the public-health goal, the amount detected, usual sources, and footnotes. See Definitions for units and abbreviations.

PFAS/PFOA results

2025 finished-water data (RIDOH)

The Rhode Island “PFAS in Drinking Water, Groundwater, and Surface Water Act of 2022” required quarterly monitoring of finished water. Six PFAS/PFOA compounds were targeted, with an interim Maximum Contaminant Level of 20 parts per trillion, individually or combined. Results from both treatment plants:

2025 source-water data

Newport Water samples all of its surface reservoirs for PFAS compounds. Source-water detections:

2023 UCMR 5 detected contaminants

Results of UCMR 5 analyses for both the Station 1 (Newport) and Lawton Valley (Portsmouth) systems, January 1 through December 31, 2023. These contaminants are suspected to be present in drinking water and do not have health-based standards set under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

2025 special-purpose monitoring of metals and synthetic organics

As part of ongoing monitoring, Newport Water tested for metals and synthetic organic compounds once per quarter in 2025 at Station 1 total plant effluent, Lawton Valley Clearwell effluent, and Lawton Valley Tank effluent. This represents treated water from both plants entering the distribution system. Thirteen metals and thirty-six synthetic organic compounds were analyzed. Detected results:

Major sources for barium and manganese: discharge of drilling wastes; discharge from metal refineries; erosion of natural deposits.

Additional health information

To ensure tap water is safe to drink, EPA prescribes regulations limiting the amount of certain contaminants in water from public systems. FDA regulations set limits for bottled water that must provide the same public-health protection.

Drinking water, including bottled water, may reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants. The presence of contaminants does not necessarily indicate a health risk. More information is available from the EPA Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 800-426-4791.

Sources of drinking water (tap and bottled) include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, springs, and wells. As water travels over land or through the ground, it dissolves naturally occurring minerals and radioactive material and can pick up substances from animal or human activity. Contaminants that may be present include:

• Microbial contaminants such as viruses and bacteria, which may come from septic systems, agricultural livestock operations, and wildlife.
• Inorganic contaminants such as salts and metals, which can be naturally occurring or result from urban storm runoff, oil and gas production, mining, or farming.
• Pesticides and herbicides, from agriculture, storm runoff, and residential uses.
• Organic chemical contaminants, including synthetic and volatile organics, by-products of industrial processes and petroleum production, and from gas stations, urban storm runoff, and septic systems.
• Radioactive contaminants, naturally occurring or resulting from oil and gas production and mining.

Concerning lead in our water

Definitions used in tables

MCL

Maximum Contaminant Level: the highest level of a contaminant allowed in drinking water. MCLs are set as close to MCLGs as feasible using the best available treatment technology.

MCLG

Maximum Contaminant Level Goal: the level below which there is no known or expected health risk. MCLGs allow a margin of safety.

MRDL

Maximum Residual Disinfectant Level: the highest level of a disinfectant allowed. Disinfectant addition is necessary for control of microbial contaminants.

MRDLG

Maximum Residual Disinfectant Level Goal: the level below which there is no known or expected health risk. Does not reflect the benefits of disinfectant use.

AL

Action Level: the concentration that, if exceeded, triggers treatment or other required action.

TT

Treatment Technique: a required process to reduce the level of a contaminant.

NTU

Nephelometric Turbidity Units.

ppm

Parts per million, or milligrams per liter (mg/L).

ppb

Parts per billion, or micrograms per liter (µg/L).

ppt

Parts per trillion, or nanograms per liter (ng/L).

N/A

Not applicable.

ND

Not detected.

Data in this report is from the most recent testing done in accordance with regulations. RIDOH allows Newport Water to monitor some contaminants less than once per year because their concentrations do not change frequently; some data, though representative, are more than one year old.