Nichols Town, NY
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2024-2024). 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.
Who runs the water here
Nichols Town serves about 725 people through 9 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 Tioga County, New York. EPA system ID: NY5300245; phone on file: 607-761-9843. 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 2023 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Nichols Town is 12 ppb across 7 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb (1 over 10 ppb).
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 1.1 ppb |
| 2021 | 2 ppb |
| 2017 | 5.49 ppb |
| 2016 | 12 ppb over 10 |
Against other New York systems
Of the 2,077 New York systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.5 ppb; 17 are over 15 ppb right now and 165 have gone over at some point. Nichols Town's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 14th percentile in New York and the 25th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Other water systems in Tioga County
29 other systems share Tioga County; 21 of them have a higher latest lead result than Nichols Town. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Veolia Of Owego | 4,850 | 2.4 ppb |
| Waverly Village | 4,830 | 3.3 ppb |
| Owego Wd #4 | 3,196 | 0 (not detected) |
| Owego Wd #2 | 2,754 | 1.6 ppb |
| Owego Wd #3 | 2,150 | 0 (not detected) |
| Village Of Newark Valley | 896 | 2.6 ppb |
| Candor Village Water Dept. | 800 | 2.85 ppb |
| Owego Wd #1 | 715 | 3.1 ppb |
| Veolia Of Nichols | 613 | 2.45 ppb |
| Owego Wd - Rt 38 | 450 | 3.3 ppb |
Your move
Look up your address in Nichols Town'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 Nichols Town whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 1380 ppb (copper action level 1,300 ppb).
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. A zero today does not rule out a jump later - the rules are tightening in 2027.