Bear Creek Water System, LA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 3 ppb (monitoring period 2021-2023). 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.
Bear Creek Water System at a glance
Bear Creek Water System serves about 435 people through 145 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Jackson Parish County, Louisiana. EPA system ID: LA1049001; phone on file: 318-259-4086. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Bear Creek Water System's lead record
That is up 3 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2020. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Bear Creek Water System is 3 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 3 ppb |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 2 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 802 Louisiana systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0.72 ppb; 4 are over 15 ppb right now and 30 have gone over at some point. Bear Creek Water System's 3 ppb sits at the 88th percentile in Louisiana and the 82nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
17 other systems share Jackson Parish County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Bear Creek Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Town Of Jonesboro Water System | 6,231 | 0 (not detected) |
| Weston Water System | 1,980 | 1.1 ppb |
| Punkin Center Hilltop Ws | 1,710 | 0 (not detected) |
| Village Of Chatham Water System | 1,557 | 1 ppb |
| Ebenezer Water System | 828 | 0 (not detected) |
| Eros Community Water System | 729 | 0 (not detected) |
| Mcdonald Water System | 675 | 2 ppb |
| Village Of Quitman Water System | 648 | 1 ppb |
| Spillway Estates Water System | 501 | 0 (not detected) |
| Village Of Hodge Water System | 479 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Quitman, LA 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 Bear Creek 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.