Knob Creek Water System, NC
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.1 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
Knob Creek Water System serves about 445 people through 175 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Transylvania County, North Carolina. EPA system ID: NC0188120; phone on file: 919-653-6999. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Every lead result on file
That is up 2.1 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Knob Creek Water System is 3.86 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2.1 ppb |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 3.86 ppb |
Against other North Carolina systems
Of the 1,925 North Carolina systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 5 are over 15 ppb right now and 75 have gone over at some point. Knob Creek Water System's 2.1 ppb sits at the 85th percentile in North Carolina and the 74th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
16 other systems share Transylvania County; 4 of them have a higher latest lead result than Knob Creek Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Brevard, City Of | 11,336 | 0 (not detected) |
| Connestee Falls | 3,532 | 0 (not detected) |
| Sapphire Lakes Development | 724 | 0 (not detected) |
| Sherwood Forest Water System | 680 | 0 (not detected) |
| Rosman, Town Of | 650 | 4 ppb |
| The Wilds Camp | 450 | 0 (not detected) |
| Turkey Pen Mhp | 229 | 12 ppb |
| Ridge Haven Conference Center | 100 | 5.5 ppb |
| Waterford Place | 95 | 0 (not detected) |
| Indian Lakes Estate S/D | 75 | 0 (not detected) |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Cary, NC 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 Knob Creek Water System 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.