Vermont
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Vermont water profile

Nitrate in Vermont community water systems

Vermont barely registers on nitrate: of its roughly 400 reporting community water systems, only a handful reach 3 mg/L in the current three-year window. See the pattern and what each reporting system measured in the three years from August 9, 2023 to August 9, 2026.

Browse all 400 Vermont systems →

Search by the utility or system name shown on a water bill. Example: City of Rutland. Private wells are not in this inventory.

99%
of the state’s 404 active community water systems have a current result here
400
systems with a current nitrate result
455,612
people served by those reporting systems
0.2%
of reporting systems at or above 5 mg/L
How to read these numbers Each system is placed into a band by its most recent reported result within a rolling three-year window. The bands describe how strongly human activity, read from nitrate, has marked a water source; they are not a safety verdict. Figures describe system reporting, not nitrate measured at an individual tap.

How Vermont's systems fall across the five bands

Most systems report below 3 mg/L

Natural background
0.00–0.99 mg/L as N
357 systems · 436,395 served
Human impact likely
1.00–2.99 mg/L as N
39 systems · 18,592 served
Human impact clear
3.00–4.99 mg/L as N
3 systems · 488 served
Health-study range
5.00–9.99 mg/L as N
1 system · 137 served
Above the federal limit
10.00 mg/L and above
0 systems · 0 served

Each system appears in one band only, placed by its most recent reported result in the current three-year window. Counts sit beside people served so a small number of larger systems cannot hide behind a row of tiny ones. The one system reporting 5 mg/L or more did not stay there across its whole three-year range — it reached 5 only on a high sample and otherwise ran lower.

Most recent reading Jul 2026; the typical system was last tested around Feb 2026. 347 systems sampled their own water; 53 systems carry a supplier’s result.

The named systems

Every reading here belongs to a utility with a name

Highest recent readings
SystemMost recent resultBandBased onPeople served
Rutland Town Fire District 65.30 mg/LMay 2026Health-study range3 samples137
Coburn Mhp3.90 mg/LMay 2025Human impact clear3 samples126
Rutland Town Fire District 53.90 mg/LAug 2025Human impact clear3 samples110
Mobile Acres Mhp3.10 mg/LAug 2025a high point — runs lowerHuman impact clear6 samples252
Barnet Fire District #22.70 mg/LJan 2026Human impact likely3 samples205
Ascutney Fire District #22.70 mg/LJun 2026Human impact likely3 samples485
Brookside Mhp2.60 mg/LAug 2025Human impact likely3 samples135
Grandview Acres Water Coop2.60 mg/LMar 2026Human impact likely3 samples102
Largest systems
SystemMost recent resultBandBased onPeople served
Burlington Dept Public Works Water Div0.28 mg/LFeb 2026Natural background4 samples42,000
South Burlington City Water System0.25 mg/LJan 2026Natural backgroundinherited from supplier19,500
Rutland City Water Dept0.26 mg/LFeb 2026Natural background3 samples18,500
Barre City Water System0.15 mg/LJan 2026Natural background3 samples14,000
Bennington Water Dept0.29 mg/LFeb 2026Natural background6 samples13,250

Each result shows its date and what it rests on, so a lone sample is never taken for a settled measurement. A single high sample is not a complete account of what a household drinks.

Where higher nitrate concentrates

A near-empty map — with one dairy-valley footnote

Human impact is clear on drinking water served in two of Vermont’s 14 counties. Each is shaded by how many of its systems reported 3.00 mg/L as N or above. Shading counts systems, not severity — a county with many small utilities can outrank one holding a single larger system that reads higher. The table beside the map splits the two bands so that difference stays visible.

VT counties shaded by number of community water systems reporting nitrate at or above 3.00 mg/L as NCounties are shaded by how many community water systems reported nitrate at or above 3.00 mg/L as N in the three years from August 9, 2023 to August 9, 2026. The same counts appear in the table below this map.Rutland County — 2 systems at 3.00–4.99 mg/L as N; 1 system at 5.00 mg/L as N or aboveOrange County — 1 system at 3.00–4.99 mg/L as N; 0 systems at 5.00 mg/L as N or above
none1–23–56–1112–2526+Number of drinking water systems reporting ≥3.00 mg/L NO₃–N per county as of August 9, 2026

Rutland leads this layer with 1 reporting system. A near-empty map — with one dairy-valley footnote.

Counties with the most systems at or above 3 mg/L as N
County3–4.99≥5Total ≥3
Rutland213
Orange101

Counts use each system's most recent reported result in the current three-year window. A system appears in only one of the two bands.

Find a specific Vermont system

What the statewide pattern says

Low everywhere, watched in the Champlain valley

Vermont's public-system nitrate is among the lowest in the country — a glaciated, largely rural state whose few higher readings sit in the Champlain valley dairy corridor.

Vermont's numbers are genuinely small: four public systems at or above 3 mg/L in the current window, led by Rutland County. That matches the regional science. Vermont sits inside the northern glacial aquifer system, where USGS measured a private-well nitrate median of just 0.11 mg/L — among the lowest of any aquifer type in the national program (USGS SIR 2010-5100).

The exception to watch is the Champlain valley, Vermont's dairy corridor on lake-bordering clay and till. State attention there focuses on phosphorus reaching Lake Champlain, but the same manure-heavy nitrogen budget is what the few mid-band systems are reporting. Mapping the whole glacial system, USGS estimated high nitrate in about 4 percent of its area, concentrated where groundwater stays oxidizing near nitrogen sources (Erickson and others, 2019).

Vermont has no county-level nitrate study this page can cite, so the reading stops there: a low-signal state whose small cluster sits in its farm valley.

The supported source reading is dairy-corridor nitrogen in the Champlain valley, at low levels — not a certified source at any individual system (Nolan and Hitt, 2006).

The general science — how nitrate moves, why some ground is vulnerable, and why the legacy lingers — is laid out with its sources on Where nitrate comes from.

Questions this page answers

What the Vermont pattern does—and does not—say

Where does nitrate concentrate in Vermont community water systems?

Rutland leads this layer with 1 reporting system. A near-empty map — with one dairy-valley footnote.

Why is Vermont's map nearly empty?

It matches the science: Vermont lies in the northern glacial aquifer system, whose private-well nitrate median of 0.11 mg/L is among the lowest USGS has measured in any aquifer type. Cold, wet, forested terrain with thin farm belts simply loads little nitrogen.

Is any part of Vermont worth watching?

The Champlain valley dairy corridor. Its manure-heavy nitrogen budget is what the state's few mid-band systems are reporting, and its shallow farm-country private wells — unregulated and untested by default — are the one group where a certified-lab nitrate test is plainly worthwhile.

Does a high public-system result mean a nearby private well is high?

No. It is a local sentinel, not a well-specific result. It shows that nitrogen and a transport pathway have reached groundwater in the area; a certified-lab test is still the only way to know a specific private well.

Sources and provenance

What this page rests on

  1. NitrateSmart inventory: 400 Vermont community water systems with a current nitrate result in the three years from August 9, 2023 to August 9, 2026. Figures count people served by reporting systems, not measured tap exposure.
  2. Nolan BT, Hitt KJ (2006). Vulnerability of Shallow Groundwater and Drinking-Water Wells to Nitrate in the United States. Environmental Science & Technology 40(24):7834–7840.
  3. Dubrovsky NM, and others (2010). Nutrients in the Nation's Streams and Groundwater, 1992–2004. USGS Circular 1350.
  4. USGS (2010). Relations That Affect the Probability and Prediction of Nitrate Contamination in the Glacial Aquifer System. SIR 2010-5100 — glacial-system private-well median 0.11 mg/L as N.
  5. Erickson ML, and others (2019). Drinking water quality in the glacial aquifer system, northern USA. Science of the Total Environment — high nitrate in ~4% of the glacial system area.