Cherokee Co. Rwd # 16 (Chicken Creek), OK
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.9 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 Cherokee Co. Rwd # 16 (Chicken Creek)
Cherokee Co. Rwd # 16 (Chicken Creek) serves about 272 people through 546 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws surface water, in Cherokee County, Oklahoma. EPA system ID: OK1021707; phone on file: 918-207-9436. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Cherokee Co. Rwd # 16 (Chicken Creek)'s lead record
That is down 2.08 ppb from 2.98 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Cherokee Co. Rwd # 16 (Chicken Creek) is 2.98 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0.9 ppb |
| 2022 | 2.98 ppb |
| 2019 | 2.79 ppb |
| 2016 | 0 (not detected) |
Where this result ranks
Of the 870 Oklahoma systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0.81 ppb; 6 are over 15 ppb right now and 66 have gone over at some point. Cherokee Co. Rwd # 16 (Chicken Creek)'s 0.9 ppb sits at the 51st percentile in Oklahoma and the 49th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Cherokee County
22 other systems share Cherokee County; 11 of them have a higher latest lead result than Cherokee Co. Rwd # 16 (Chicken Creek). If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Tahlequah Pwa | 14,458 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cherokee Co. Rwd #11 | 3,395 | 1.1 ppb |
| Stickross Mountain Water Co | 3,250 | 2.2 ppb |
| Cherokee Co. Rwd #3 (Grandview) | 2,300 | 1 ppb |
| Peggs Water Company | 1,925 | 2.5 ppb |
| Cherokee Co. Rwd #13 | 1,640 | 2 ppb |
| Cherokee Co. Rwd #2 (Keys) | 1,493 | 0 (not detected) |
| Hulbert Pwa | 1,007 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cherokee Co. Rwd #1 (Ft Gibson) | 710 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cherokee Co. Rwd #7 (Welling) | 418 | 1 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Cookson, OK 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 Cherokee Co. Rwd # 16 (Chicken Creek) 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. The lead result guide covers how utilities pick the homes they sample. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.