Forest Trace, TX
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.59 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
Forest Trace serves about 1,000 people through 593 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Montgomery County, Texas. EPA system ID: TX1700869; phone on file: 737-376-2534. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2022 (0.56 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Forest Trace is 2.6 ppb across 6 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0.59 ppb |
| 2022 | 0.56 ppb |
| 2022 | 2.19 ppb |
| 2021 | 2.31 ppb |
| 2018 | 1.36 ppb |
| 2018 | 2.6 ppb |
How Forest Trace compares
Of the 4,447 Texas systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0.28 ppb; 15 are over 15 ppb right now and 202 have gone over at some point. Forest Trace's 0.59 ppb sits at the 55th percentile in Texas and the 44th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
332 other systems share Montgomery County; 124 of them have a higher latest lead result than Forest Trace. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| City Of Conroe | 113,912 | 0 (not detected) |
| Porter Special Utility District | 26,388 | 0.59 ppb |
| Montgomery Trace Water System | 25,917 | 0.41 ppb |
| Montgomery County Mud 46 | 24,399 | 2.31 ppb |
| Montgomery County Mud 47 | 24,171 | 0.7 ppb |
| Montgomery County Mud 67 | 16,821 | 0.83 ppb |
| Montgomery County Mud 60 | 15,036 | 3.16 ppb |
| New Caney Mud | 14,307 | 1.54 ppb |
| City Of Willis | 14,133 | 0.7 ppb |
| Southern Montgomery County Mud | 13,372 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Austin, TX
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Austin, TX 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 Forest Trace 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.