Avon Water System, AL
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.7 ppb (monitoring period 2023-2025). 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
Avon Water System serves about 495 people through 165 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Houston County, Alabama. EPA system ID: AL0001511; phone on file: 334-899-3715. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2022 (0.9 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Avon Water System is 5 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0.7 ppb |
| 2022 | 0.9 ppb |
| 2019 | 1.5 ppb |
| 2016 | 5 ppb |
Against other Alabama systems
Of the 542 Alabama systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 1 are over 15 ppb right now and 11 have gone over at some point. Avon Water System's 0.7 ppb sits at the 59th percentile in Alabama and the 46th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
10 other systems share Houston County; 9 of them have a higher latest lead result than Avon Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Dothan Utilities, City Of | 97,146 | 3.2 ppb |
| Taylor, City Of | 9,339 | 7.3 ppb |
| Houston County Water Authority | 4,902 | 1.1 ppb |
| Ashford Water Works, City Of | 3,816 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cottonwood, Town Of | 3,570 | 1.7 ppb |
| Cowarts Water System, Town Of | 2,469 | 1.2 ppb |
| Kinsey Water System | 2,010 | 1.3 ppb |
| Webb Water System | 1,521 | 2.7 ppb |
| Columbia Water Works | 1,179 | 1 ppb |
| Gordon, Town Of | 414 | 11.8 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Ashford, AL 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 Avon Water System 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. Size matters more than most people expect: small vs large water systems.