Delaware Drinking Water Watch Guide

Drinking Water Watch is Delaware's public tool for looking up water systems, monitoring data, and compliance information.

Public water

Official-source check: Drinking Water Watch is operated by the Division of Public Health's Office of Drinking Water. Always use the live tool rather than a cached or third-party copy of its data.

Short answer: Search Drinking Water Watch by system name, county, or municipality to find your public water system's PWSID, compliance status, and monitoring history.

Why Drinking Water Watch matters in Delaware

Drinking Water Watch is Delaware's public-system record, not a general search engine for household water. Confirm the exact system name, county, source, and PWSID before relying on a result. The record can connect an address to the correct utility, monitoring history, and public notices; it cannot tell you whether lead is entering through your home's plumbing or whether a private well is safe.

Step-by-step

  1. Open Drinking Water Watch and choose a search method (system name, county, or facility ID).
  2. Enter your municipality or the provider name from your water bill.
  3. Review the list of matching systems and confirm the one whose service area includes your address.
  4. Open the system's detail page to review its PWSID, system type, and current status.
  5. Use the linked monitoring and compliance data as a starting point, then find the current CCR for full context.

What the tool does and does not show

Drinking Water Watch shows official compliance-monitoring data for the water leaving treatment or entering the distribution system. It does not show what's happening in your specific household plumbing, and it is not a substitute for reading the system's current CCR narrative.

Common mistakes

  • Searching only by town name and assuming the first result is correct
  • Treating monitoring data as the complete picture without checking the current CCR
  • Confusing a subdivision or mobile-home system with the larger municipal system nearby

When to contact ODW or the utility

If Drinking Water Watch shows a violation or notice you don't understand, contact the Office of Drinking Water or your water supplier directly for an explanation.

Official sources

Related

Is Drinking Water Watch the same as a CCR?

No. Drinking Water Watch is a searchable database of compliance and monitoring data. A CCR is the narrative annual report a system publishes for its customers. Use both together.

This page provides general educational information and is not regulatory advice.

Last reviewed: 2026-07-11. Report a correction.

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