Highridge Water Auth, PA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 6.4 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 Highridge Water Auth
Highridge Water Auth serves about 16,000 people through 5,652 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 Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. EPA system ID: PA5650069; phone on file: 724-459-8033. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Highridge Water Auth's lead record
That is up 6.4 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Highridge Water Auth is 6.4 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 6.4 ppb |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 0 (not detected) |
Where this result ranks
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. Highridge Water Auth's 6.4 ppb sits at the 69th percentile in Pennsylvania and the 94th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
14 other systems share Westmoreland County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Highridge Water Auth. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Mawc Sweeney Plant | 143,000 | 3.48 ppb |
| New Kensington Muni Auth | 47,800 | 0 (not detected) |
| Latrobe Muni Auth | 30,000 | 1.64 ppb |
| Derry Boro Muni Auth | 6,500 | 1.04 ppb |
| Ligonier Twp Muni Auth | 3,293 | - |
| Mawc Furnace Run | 3,100 | - |
| Youngstown Boro Muni Auth | 2,730 | - |
| Torrance State Hospital | 997 | - |
| Waterford Waterworks | 389 | - |
| Laurel Mountain Borough | 110 | - |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Blairsville, 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 Highridge Water Auth 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.