Emmaus Borough Public Water, PA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 3 ppb (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. 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 Emmaus Borough Public Water
Emmaus Borough Public Water serves about 14,000 people through 4,740 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 groundwater, in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. EPA system ID: PA3390032; phone on file: 610-965-9288. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Emmaus Borough Public Water's lead record
Against the period ending 2022 (4 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Emmaus Borough Public Water is 4 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 3 ppb |
| 2022 | 4 ppb |
| 2019 | 4 ppb |
| 2016 | 4 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. Emmaus Borough Public Water's 3 ppb sits at the 60th percentile in Pennsylvania and the 83rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Lehigh County
38 other systems share Lehigh County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than Emmaus Borough Public Water. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Lca Allentown Division | 118,000 | 7 ppb |
| Lca Wlsa Central Division | 47,693 | 2 ppb |
| Swt Main System | 14,500 | 6 ppb |
| Whitehall Twp Authority | 13,063 | 4 ppb |
| Salisbury Twp Water System | 8,522 | 3 ppb |
| Upper Saucon Twp Water Supply | 7,300 | 0 (not detected) |
| Catasauqua Mun Water Works | 6,598 | 5 ppb |
| Slatington Borough Water Sys | 4,450 | 0 (not detected) |
| Macungie Borough Authority | 3,039 | - |
| Lca North Whitehall Division | 2,910 | - |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Emmaus, PA 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 Emmaus Borough Public Water 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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.