Mount Airy, GA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 4.5 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
Mount Airy serves about 1,384 people through 532 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 Habersham County, Georgia. EPA system ID: GA1370005; phone on file: 706-778-6990. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Lead results over time
That is up 4.5 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Mount Airy is 4.5 ppb across 2 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 4.5 ppb |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
How Mount Airy compares
Of the 1,681 Georgia systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0.68 ppb; 15 are over 15 ppb right now and 131 have gone over at some point. Mount Airy's 4.5 ppb sits at the 90th percentile in Georgia and the 89th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
13 other systems share Habersham County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Mount Airy. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Demorest | 18,049 | 2 ppb |
| Cornelia | 6,130 | 1.1 ppb |
| Clarkesville | 5,785 | 0.56 ppb |
| Baldwin | 4,160 | 0 (not detected) |
| Alto | 2,737 | 1 ppb |
| The Orchard Development | 639 | 0 (not detected) |
| Deer Trail Lakes/High Meadows Subdivisio | 111 | 0 (not detected) |
| Old River Road Hoa | 104 | 2.5 ppb |
| Old Panther Creek Subdivision | 75 | 1.6 ppb |
| Pinecrest Mountain S/D | 67 | 12.9 ppb |
Next steps for Mt. Airy, GA
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Mt. Airy, GA 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 Mount Airy 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. Size matters more than most people expect: small vs large water systems.