Taylor’s drinking water comes from Taylor (EPA system MI0006545), which buys treated surface water from a neighbouring wholesale system and distributes it locally for about 63,409 people. This page translates that system’s official EPA record — lead and copper results, violation history, and what the data does and does not say — into plain English.
This page is built entirely from the U.S. EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), the same records state regulators use. We did not test Taylor’s water, and system-level data describes the utility’s water as a whole — not what comes out of one specific home’s tap. Where the record is silent, we say so rather than guess.
Key takeaways
- Taylor supplies Taylor (Purchased surface water); it serves about 63,409 people across its service area.
- Taylor’s most recent reported 90th-percentile lead result is 10.7 ppb, below the EPA action level of 15 ppb.
- 1 health-based violation in the last 10 years — details below, with dates and current status.
- EPA does not track hardness. If you’re shopping for a softener, test first and size from a real grains-per-gallon number.
The water system serving Taylor
Taylor is the community water system the EPA associates with Taylor, Michigan. It reports a population served of about 63,409. Its EPA source code is a purchased one: the system buys already-treated water from a neighbouring supplier rather than treating its own, which is common for suburbs and townships.
| System | EPA ID | People served | Source water | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taylor | MI0006545 | 63,409 | Purchased surface water | Main system |
Not sure which system serves your address? Run your ZIP code through our What’s In My Water? lookup — it resolves the systems EPA lists for your ZIP and shows the same records in full.
Lead and copper
Lead: Taylor’s most recent reported 90th-percentile lead result is 10.7 ppb, below the EPA action level of 15 ppb.
Read those numbers carefully: a 90th percentile is a system-wide statistic from a sample of homes, not a test of your tap. Lead in drinking water comes mostly from a home’s own plumbing — service lines, solder and fixtures — so two houses on the same street can test very differently. Homes built before 1986 carry the highest risk, whatever the system average says.
Violation history — the last 10 years
EPA records show 1 health-based violation for Taylor in the last 10 years. Health-based means the serious kind — here is what it was:
- a regulated contaminant (EPA code 5000) — a required treatment technique step was not followed. Began November 2025; returned to compliance February 2026.
Separately, EPA lists 6 monitoring/reporting items for this system in the last 5 years — missed or late tests and paperwork. Those are compliance-process findings, not contamination findings, and we keep them in their own bucket on purpose.
What this means for your home
System data sets the background; your home’s plumbing writes the foreground. In practice:
- Lead deserves action here. A system 90th percentile of 10.7 ppb means sampled homes in this system do pick up lead. If your home predates 1986, a filter certified to NSF/ANSI 53 for lead — or a reverse osmosis system (NSF/ANSI 58) — is the standard fix; see our water filter guides and certified filter picks for what the certifications actually cover.
- Taste and smell: surface-water systems disinfect with chlorine or chloramine, which is most of what people taste. A basic carbon filter (NSF/ANSI 42) handles it; our chloramine vs chlorine explainer helps you tell which one your water has.
- Hardness is not in this record — by design. The EPA doesn’t track it, so nobody can honestly tell you your grains-per-gallon from this page. Scale on fixtures and shower doors is a hint, not a measurement. Test (strips are a start; a lab test is better — see how to test your water at home), then size any softener with our softener sizing calculator and the softener hub.
- On a private well outside the city system instead? Nothing on this page applies to your water — start with our Michigan well water guide for testing and treatment that fits the state.
Water quality in nearby cities
St. Clair Shores, MI · Dearborn Heights, MI · Royal Oak, MI · Farmington Hills, MI
This guide is one of our per-city water reports — see the full list on the Water Quality hub, alongside our contaminant explainers and testing guides.
Frequently asked questions
Is Taylor water safe to drink?
The honest answer is: largely yes today, with real entries on its record. Taylor has 1 health-based violation in the last 10 years (detailed in the violation section above); all of them now show as returned to compliance. A returned-to-compliance violation is history, not a current failure — and for lead, {lead_clause}. EPA data describes the system as a whole, not your tap; lead usually comes from a home’s own plumbing, so a certified home test is the only way to know your exact water.
Where does Taylor get its drinking water?
Taylor is the community water system the EPA associates with Taylor. It buys treated surface water from a neighbouring wholesale system and distributes it locally and serves about 63,409 people across its service area (EPA system ID MI0006545).
What is the lead level in Taylor’s water?
Taylor’s most recent reported 90th-percentile lead result is 10.7 ppb, below the EPA action level of 15 ppb. That figure is a system statistic from sampled homes, not a test of your tap — your own plumbing decides your exposure, and a certified home test is the only way to know it.
Has Taylor’s water system had violations?
Yes — 1 health-based violation in the last 10 years, listed with dates and status in the violation section above. All of them show as returned to compliance in EPA’s record.
Do I need a water filter in Taylor?
The clearest reason to filter in Taylor is lead from home plumbing, given the system’s 90th-percentile result. A filter certified to NSF/ANSI 53 for lead (or reverse osmosis, NSF/ANSI 58) is the standard answer. For everything else, match the tool to a measured problem — hardness included — rather than buying for a list of fears.
Source: U.S. EPA SDWIS via Envirofacts, retrieved November 12, 2026. System-level data describes the utility’s water, not any individual tap. If your water bill names a different system, that system’s record is the one that applies to you.