Big Thicket Retreat, TX
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.98 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.
Big Thicket Retreat at a glance
Big Thicket Retreat serves about 108 people through 36 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Hardin County, Texas. EPA system ID: TX1000053; phone on file: 936-327-3107. 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 1.98 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Big Thicket Retreat is 1.98 ppb across 2 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.98 ppb |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
How Big Thicket Retreat compares
Of the 4,447 Texas systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0.28 ppb; 15 are over 15 ppb right now and 202 have gone over at some point. Big Thicket Retreat's 1.98 ppb sits at the 82nd percentile in Texas and the 69th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Hardin County
20 other systems share Hardin County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Big Thicket Retreat. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Lumberton Mud | 31,428 | 0 (not detected) |
| City Of Silsbee | 10,026 | 0 (not detected) |
| North Hardin Wsc | 7,755 | 0 (not detected) |
| West Hardin Wsc | 4,630 | 0.73 ppb |
| Wildwood Resort City | 1,992 | 0.86 ppb |
| City Of Kountze | 1,981 | 0 (not detected) |
| City Of Sour Lake | 1,813 | 0 (not detected) |
| Hardin County Wcid 1 | 1,256 | 0 (not detected) |
| Countrywood Water System | 431 | 0 (not detected) |
| Enchanted Forest | 358 | 0 (not detected) |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Livingston, TX 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 Thicket Retreat 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.