Montgomery, NJ tap water quality

Montgomery's water met New Jersey's PFAS limits in 2025, but PFOA and PFOS were above EPA's national limit of 4 ppt, which utilities must meet by 2029.

Montgomery, in Somerset County, has about 24,039 residents. Virtually all of them live inside the service area of New Jersey American Water's Raritan system, according to New Jersey DEP's service area map.

Hardness and lead in Montgomery's water

Hardness

—Not listed in the 2025 report

Lead, 90th percentile of home taps

2 ppbAction level: 15 ppb, dropping to 10 ppb in November 2027

Filtering Montgomery's tap water at home

PFOA and PFOS were above the federal limits in this system's report. We found 9 filters with a certified PFOA and PFOS reduction claim (on its own or as part of a total PFAS claim), checked against the manufacturer's performance data sheet; the water system page lists them with a link to each document.

Where does Montgomery's water come from?

The Raritan system's 2025 report lists its own sources as 98 wells, 7 surface water intakes.

Bills, new service and account questions are handled by New Jersey American Water, which runs the Raritan system: customer service and billing.

Local factors in Montgomery

Age of homes

21% (margin of error ±4 percentage points) of homes in Montgomery were built before 1980 (Somerset County: 46%, New Jersey: 63%; U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024). The utility's water quality report describes water leaving the system, not the plumbing inside a home; why the build year matters for lead.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B25034 (Year Structure Built).

Lead service lines

New Jersey American Water's service line map, where you can look up your own address, lists 6,303 service lines (the pipes from the water main to each building) in Montgomery on October 31, 2026. 1 of them (under 1%) have lead on the utility's side, the property owner's side or both (0 only on the utility's side, 1 only on the owner's side), and New Jersey's 2021 lead service line law requires the utility to replace them, including the part on private property. For 942, the material on at least one side hasn't been identified yet (how we count service lines; all towns compared).

Source: New Jersey American Water, service line material map, lines counted inside the town boundary on October 31, 2026; New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, 2022 order quoting the 2021 lead service line law (N.J.S.A. 58:12A-40).

Radon

NJDEP places Montgomery in Radon Tier 1 (high potential: 25 percent or more of tested homes at or above 4 picocuries per liter) based on indoor radon tests (2015). In that report, 41% of the 4,983 homes tested in Montgomery were at or above 4 picocuries per liter. NJDEP recommends testing every home regardless of tier. How radon tiers work.

Source: New Jersey DEP Radon Section, 2015 Radon Tier Assignment Report; the same figures appear in NJDEP's current municipal tier list.

Known contaminated sites

NJDEP lists 14 sites in Montgomery where soil or groundwater contamination has been confirmed (October 14, 2026). These are places under cleanup oversight; they do not mean that tap water from the public system is contaminated. The public water system is tested and treated separately.

Source: New Jersey DEP, Known Contaminated Sites List map layer, retrieved October 16, 2026, with site-by-site lists in NJDEP's Known Contaminated Sites reports.

Water and sewer bills

In the Census Bureau's survey (ACS 2020-2024, about this question), 72% (margin of error ±4 percentage points) of occupied homes in Montgomery pay a separate charge for water and sewer; the rest report no charge or a charge included in other fees, such as rent. Among the homes that pay, 59% (margin of error ±5 percentage points) report $1,000 or more for the year (34% in Somerset County, 30% statewide), as households report it rather than as the utility bills it.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B25134 (Annual Water and Sewer Costs).

ZIP codes covering Montgomery: 08502, 08540 (shared with Princeton, Franklin Township, West Windsor, Lawrence Township, Hopewell Township, South Brunswick), 08558. Source: U.S. Census Bureau 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas.