Commerce, GA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.2 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.
Who runs the water here
Commerce serves about 11,340 people through 4,200 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 Jackson County, Georgia. EPA system ID: GA1570001; phone on file: 706-335-3164. 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 (1.6 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Commerce is 1.6 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.2 ppb |
| 2022 | 1.6 ppb |
| 2019 | 1.1 ppb |
| 2016 | 0 (not detected) |
How Commerce compares
Of the 1,681 Georgia systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0.68 ppb; 15 are over 15 ppb right now and 131 have gone over at some point. Commerce's 1.2 ppb sits at the 61st percentile in Georgia and the 59th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
10 other systems share Jackson County; 4 of them have a higher latest lead result than Commerce. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Jackson County Water & Sewer Authority | 33,601 | 0 (not detected) |
| Braselton | 20,469 | 0 (not detected) |
| Jefferson | 12,690 | 0 (not detected) |
| Hoschton Water System | 6,620 | 1.8 ppb |
| Nicholson Water Authority | 3,218 | 3 ppb |
| Trotter`S Ridge Subdivision | 195 | 1.1 ppb |
| Crooked Creek S/D | 62 | 1.4 ppb |
| Arcade Mobile Home Park | 54 | 7.1 ppb |
| Charclar Subdivision | 49 | 0 (not detected) |
| Upper Oconee Basin Water Auth. | - | - |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Commerce, GA 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 Commerce 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.