Border City Water District, NY
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 8.3 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.
Border City Water District at a glance
Border City Water District serves about 1,600 people through 400 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 surface water, in Seneca County, New York. EPA system ID: NY4911740; phone on file: 315-539-9331. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Border City Water District's lead record
That is up 3.5 ppb from 4.8 ppb in the period ending 2021. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Border City Water District is 8.3 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 8.3 ppb |
| 2021 | 4.8 ppb |
| 2018 | 8.3 ppb |
Against other New York systems
Of the 2,077 New York systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.5 ppb; 17 are over 15 ppb right now and 165 have gone over at some point. Border City Water District's 8.3 ppb sits at the 94th percentile in New York and the 96th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
25 other systems share Seneca County; 4 of them have a higher latest lead result than Border City Water District. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Seneca Falls | 9,400 | 2 ppb |
| Waterloo Village | 7,000 | 9.6 ppb |
| Seneca County Water District #1 | 1,820 | 8.3 ppb |
| Ovid Village | 990 | 5.7 ppb |
| Interlaken Village | 650 | 3 ppb |
| Cayuga Lake Water District # 3 | 432 | 1 ppb |
| Junius Water District #1 | 400 | 8.3 ppb |
| Willard Water District | 372 | 10.15 ppb |
| Seneca Lake Water District #1 | 333 | 8.3 ppb |
| Town Of Waterloo Water District | 250 | 8.3 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Waterloo, NY 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 Border City Water District 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.