Houlka-Washington Ext, MS
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2021-2023). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. The latest 90th-percentile result was reported as 0 (not detected at the lab's limit). That says the sampled homes were low, not that your home has no lead service line. Check your utility's service line inventory for your address.
About Houlka-Washington Ext
Houlka-Washington Ext serves about 570 people through 216 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 Pontotoc County, Mississippi. EPA system ID: MS0580023; phone on file: 662-568-2745. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Houlka-Washington Ext's lead record
Against the period ending 2020 (0.9 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Houlka-Washington Ext is 1.3 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 0.9 ppb |
| 2017 | 1.3 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 973 Mississippi systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 9 are over 15 ppb right now and 44 have gone over at some point. Houlka-Washington Ext's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 4th percentile in Mississippi and the 23rd nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Nearby utilities
11 other systems share Pontotoc County; 10 of them have a higher latest lead result than Houlka-Washington Ext. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| City Of Pontotoc | 9,398 | 1 ppb |
| Algoma Water Association | 6,879 | 2.7 ppb |
| East Pontotoc Water Assn | 5,170 | 0.6 ppb |
| Oak Hill Water Assn | 4,739 | 0 (not detected) |
| Town Of Ecru | 2,215 | 0.9 ppb |
| Mud Creek Water Association #1 | 1,764 | 1.5 ppb |
| Toccopola Water Association #2 | 1,592 | 0.7 ppb |
| Troy Water Association | 1,580 | 1.8 ppb |
| Randolph Water Association #1 | 1,299 | 2.8 ppb |
| Town Of Sherman | 847 | 0.7 ppb |
Your move
Look up your address in Houlka-Washington Ext's service line inventory. If it says lead, galvanized or unknown, test your tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Houlka-Washington Ext 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. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.