Athens Pws, OH
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2022-2024). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. The latest 90th-percentile result was reported as 0 (not detected at the lab's limit). That says the sampled homes were low, not that your home has no lead service line. Check your utility's service line inventory for your address.
Athens Pws at a glance
Athens Pws serves about 32,725 people through 5,379 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Athens County, Ohio. EPA system ID: OH0500212; phone on file: 740-592-3338. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Athens Pws's lead record
Against the period ending 2021 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Athens Pws is 0 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
Against other Ohio systems
Of the 1,079 Ohio systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0.7 ppb; 1 are over 15 ppb right now and 27 have gone over at some point. Athens Pws's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 43rd percentile in Ohio and the 39th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Nearby utilities
12 other systems share Athens County; 11 of them have a higher latest lead result than Athens Pws. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Le-Ax Regional Water District Pws | 19,311 | 1.19 ppb |
| Nelsonville Pws | 6,656 | 1.2 ppb |
| Sunday Creek Valley Water Pws | 5,451 | 1.7 ppb |
| Athens Co., The Plains S.D. 1 Pws | 3,276 | 2 ppb |
| Burr Oak Regional Water District | 1,994 | 1.6 ppb |
| Glouster Public Water System | 1,659 | 0.8 ppb |
| Chauncey | 1,428 | 1.19 ppb |
| Albany Village Pws | 901 | 0 (not detected) |
| Coolville Village Pws | 859 | 2.8 ppb |
| Jacksonville Village Pws | 481 | 0.3 ppb |
What to do in your house
Look up your address in Athens Pws's service line inventory. If it says lead, galvanized or unknown, test your tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Athens Pws 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. What a 90th-percentile result does and does not tell you: how to read a lead result. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.