Ashland Area Water Authority, PA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2 ppb (monitoring period 2025-2025). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. Lead was measured in sampled homes but the 90th percentile is under both action levels. EPA's health goal for lead is zero, so test your own tap if your home was built before 1986 or anyone in it is pregnant or a young child.
Who runs the water here
Ashland Area Water Authority serves about 4,200 people through 4,659 service connections, which makes it a medium-sized system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. EPA system ID: PA3540030; phone on file: 570-578-0438. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
That is up 2 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Ashland Area Water Authority is 2 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2 ppb |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 2 ppb |
| 2016 | 0 (not detected) |
How Ashland Area Water Authority compares
Of the 516 Pennsylvania systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 2 ppb; 143 are over 15 ppb right now and 156 have gone over at some point. Ashland Area Water Authority's 2 ppb sits at the 47th percentile in Pennsylvania and the 72nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
38 other systems share Schuylkill County; 8 of them have a higher latest lead result than Ashland Area Water Authority. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Schuylkill Co Mun Auth | 31,850 | 1.1 ppb |
| Aqua Shenandoah | 9,500 | 0 (not detected) |
| Tamaqua Area Water Authority | 8,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Minersville Municipal Water Au | 7,275 | 14 ppb |
| Blythe Twp Municipal Authority | 7,100 | 3.77 ppb |
| Kline Township Mun Authority | 6,700 | 0 (not detected) |
| Schuylkill Haven Boro Water | 6,000 | 1.5 ppb |
| Mahanoy Twp Auth | 5,584 | 4 ppb |
| Pa Amer Water Co Frackville | 5,583 | 0 (not detected) |
| Hegins Hubley Authority | 3,870 | 2.09 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Ashland, PA may offer free or low-cost kits through the utility. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Ashland Area Water Authority whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do.
These figures describe homes the utility sampled, not your tap. Only your service line record or a test of your own water answers the question for your house. The lead result guide covers how utilities pick the homes they sample. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.