Lake County, Indiana has about 502,955 residents (Census 2024 estimate) and 30 community water systems in EPA records. The largest local system is Indiana American Water - Northwest, serving about 210,510 people from surface water.
Public-record figures, not a test of your tap. Not 100% accurate or guaranteed. Confirm with a water test, your utility or a qualified pro before you buy or act.
Indiana American Water - Northwest Estimate: untreated local water, not your tap · Low confidence
9.8 gpg (168 mg/L), hard
Lake County: median of 2,409 results from 484 monitoring sites (streams and wells). Utilities may blend or treat water, so your tap can differ.
Source: Hard Water Map county data, samples through 2022
County estimates: Hard Water Map (hardwatermap.com), CC BY 4.0, derived from the USGS/EPA Water Quality Portal; file generated 2026-07-22. License
Public-record figures, not a test of your tap. Not 100% accurate or guaranteed. Confirm with a water test, your utility or a qualified pro before you buy or act.
For a 3-person home using 57 gallons per person per day and regenerating weekly, you'd remove about 11,731 grains between regenerations. Suggested size: 24,000 grain. This uses a low-confidence county estimate, so confirm with a test first.
Estimate only. Not 100% accurate or guaranteed. Confirm with a water test, your utility or a qualified pro before you buy or act.
The 6 biggest of 30 community water systems on EPA records for this county. Service areas don't follow county lines; your water bill names your provider.
IN5245015 · serves about 210,510 people · Surface water
Lead 90th percentile: 3 ppb (period starting 2022-01-01) Older result. Action level: 15 ppb (drops to 10 ppb on Nov 1, 2027).
IN5245020 · serves about 78,384 people · Surface water
Lead 90th percentile: 3 ppb (period starting 2025-01-01). Action level: 15 ppb (drops to 10 ppb on Nov 1, 2027).
IN5245008 · serves about 30,000 people · Surface water
Lead 90th percentile: 0.7 ppb (period starting 2022-01-01) Older result. Action level: 15 ppb (drops to 10 ppb on Nov 1, 2027).
IN5245041 · serves about 30,000 people · Surface water
Lead 90th percentile: 1 ppb (period starting 2021-01-01) Older result. Action level: 15 ppb (drops to 10 ppb on Nov 1, 2027).
IN5245012 · serves about 26,370 people · Surface water
Lead 90th percentile: 8 ppb (period starting 2022-01-01) Older result. Action level: 15 ppb (drops to 10 ppb on Nov 1, 2027).
IN5245043 · serves about 25,700 people · Groundwater
Lead 90th percentile: 2.9 ppb (period starting 2024-01-01). Action level: 15 ppb (drops to 10 ppb on Nov 1, 2027).
Public-record figures, not a test of your tap. Not 100% accurate or guaranteed. Confirm with a water test, your utility or a qualified pro before you buy or act.
A PFAS detection is not a violation. Federal limits (4 ppt for PFOA and PFOS) apply to running annual averages, with compliance required by 2029. In May 2026 EPA proposed extending the PFOA/PFOS deadline to 2031 and removing other PFAS limits; not final as of 2026-10-21.
These are public records for whole systems. Your home's pipes, fixtures and any private well can change what you drink. A certified lab test or a hardness test strip gives you your own numbers. Then use our PFAS and lead filter selector to see which certifications to look for.
None of the 6 largest systems here have a health-based violation in EPA records since October 2021. Indiana American Water - Northwest's most recent lead 90th percentile was 3 ppb (2022), below the 15 ppb action level. Public records can't guarantee what comes out of your tap, especially with older plumbing, so a home test is the surest check.
There's no published utility figure in our data, but untreated local stream and well samples in Lake County have a median of about 9.8 grains per gallon (168 mg/L, hard). That's a low-confidence estimate of source water, not your tap, so test before you buy equipment. For a 3-person home at 9.8 gpg, our softener calculator suggests a 24,000 grain unit as a starting point.
None of the 6 sampled systems listed here detected PFAS above EPA's reporting levels in UCMR 5 testing.
Most homes are served by Indiana American Water - Northwest or one of the other systems listed on this page, but service areas don't follow county lines. Your water bill names your provider, and its annual Consumer Confidence Report has the full test results.
Data as of October 21, 2026. Figures are copied from public records and combined with our own calculations; they can be out of date or wrong. Tapped Out isn't affiliated with any utility or the EPA. Written and reviewed by the Tapped Out team. How we calculate · All sources.