City Of Bethlehem, PA
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2025-2025). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. The latest 90th-percentile result was reported as 0 (not detected at the lab's limit). That says the sampled homes were low, not that your home has no lead service line. Check your utility's service line inventory for your address.
City Of Bethlehem at a glance
City Of Bethlehem serves about 117,259 people through 36,709 service connections, which makes it a very large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. EPA system ID: PA3480046; phone on file: 610-865-7207. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2022 (1 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for City Of Bethlehem is 7 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 1 ppb |
| 2019 | 7 ppb |
| 2016 | 2 ppb |
Against other Pennsylvania systems
Of the 516 Pennsylvania systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 2 ppb; 143 are over 15 ppb right now and 156 have gone over at some point. City Of Bethlehem's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 24th percentile in Pennsylvania and the 40th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Other water systems in Northampton County
42 other systems share Northampton County; 4 of them have a higher latest lead result than City Of Bethlehem. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Easton Area Water System | 96,867 | 0 (not detected) |
| Northampton Boro Muni Auth | 40,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Pawc Blue Mountain | 23,763 | 5 ppb |
| Pawc Bangor | 9,008 | 0 (not detected) |
| Hellertown Borough Authority | 5,800 | 2 ppb |
| Lower Saucon Authority | 5,700 | 0 (not detected) |
| Walnutport Authority | 3,000 | - |
| Bath Municipal Water Works | 2,680 | - |
| Pawc Westgate | 2,668 | - |
| Portland Boro Authority | 1,100 | - |
What to do in your house
Look up your address in City Of Bethlehem's service line inventory. If it says lead, galvanized or unknown, test your tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask City Of Bethlehem 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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.