City Of Santa Barbara Water Department, CA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.5 ppb (monitoring period 2024-2026). 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.
City Of Santa Barbara Water Department at a glance
City Of Santa Barbara Water Department serves about 93,334 people through 27,553 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Santa Barbara County, California. EPA system ID: CA4210010; phone on file: 805-564-5379. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
City Of Santa Barbara Water Department's lead record
That is up 2.5 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2023. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for City Of Santa Barbara Water Department is 3.2 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 2.5 ppb |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 3.2 ppb |
| 2017 | 3.2 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 2,884 California systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 30 are over 15 ppb right now and 215 have gone over at some point. City Of Santa Barbara Water Department's 2.5 ppb sits at the 82nd percentile in California and the 78th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
62 other systems share Santa Barbara County; 10 of them have a higher latest lead result than City Of Santa Barbara Water Department. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| City Of Santa Maria Utilities Department | 112,208 | 0 (not detected) |
| Goleta Water District | 85,535 | 0 (not detected) |
| Lompoc-City Water Utility Div | 40,538 | 0 (not detected) |
| Golden State Water Company - Orcutt | 34,267 | 2.6 ppb |
| Carpinteria Valley Water District | 16,356 | 0 (not detected) |
| American Water O&M, Llc - Vsfb | 14,971 | 0 (not detected) |
| Montecito Water Dist | 12,010 | 0 (not detected) |
| Guadalupe Water Department | 8,897 | 0 (not detected) |
| Vandenberg Village Comm. Serv. Dist. | 7,308 | 0 (not detected) |
| Santa Ynez River Water Cons. Dist. Id#1 | 7,022 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Santa Barbara, CA
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Santa Barbara, CA 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 City Of Santa Barbara 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. 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.