Big Sandy Water Department, TN
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1 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.
About Big Sandy Water Department
Big Sandy Water Department serves about 1,217 people through 518 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Benton County, Tennessee. EPA system ID: TN0000051; phone on file: 731-593-3213. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Every lead result on file
That is down 2.6 ppb from 3.6 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Big Sandy Water Department is 3.6 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 ppb |
| 2022 | 3.6 ppb |
| 2019 | 0.5 ppb |
| 2016 | 0.5 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 453 Tennessee systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 0 are over 15 ppb right now and 10 have gone over at some point. Big Sandy Water Department's 1 ppb sits at the 30th percentile in Tennessee and the 54th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
2 other systems share Benton County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Big Sandy Water Department. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Camden Water Dept | 10,013 | 0.3 ppb |
| Harbor Utility District | 736 | 1 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Big Sandy, TN 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 Big Sandy Water Department 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.