Olympic Corrections Center, WA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.5 ppb (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. 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
Olympic Corrections Center serves about 390 people through 19 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by the state and draws groundwater, in Jefferson County, Washington. EPA system ID: WA5313560. Ask the utility on your bill for your address in their service line inventory.
Olympic Corrections Center's lead record
Against the period ending 2020 (1.5 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Olympic Corrections Center is 1.5 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 0.5 ppb |
| 2020 | 1.5 ppb |
| 2017 | 1 ppb |
How Olympic Corrections Center compares
Of the 2,218 Washington systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 18 are over 15 ppb right now and 62 have gone over at some point. Olympic Corrections Center's 0.5 ppb sits at the 38th percentile in Washington and the 43rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Jefferson County
23 other systems share Jefferson County; 14 of them have a higher latest lead result than Olympic Corrections Center. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Port Townsend City Of | 17,053 | 3 ppb |
| Quimper | 14,548 | 2 ppb |
| Olympic Water & Sewer Inc | 3,086 | 5.9 ppb |
| Cape George Colony Club Inc | 1,022 | 0 (not detected) |
| Bywater Bay | 628 | 2 ppb |
| Bridgehaven Community Club | 623 | 17 ppb |
| Jefferson County Water Dist #1 | 600 | 1.5 ppb |
| Gardiner Lud 1 | 379 | 0 (not detected) |
| Lazy C | 367 | 3 ppb |
| Coyle | 329 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Forks, WA
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Forks, WA 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 Olympic Corrections Center 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.