Owasco Water District, NY
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2 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
Owasco Water District serves about 3,000 people through 1,448 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 surface water, in Cayuga County, New York. EPA system ID: NY0501721. Ask the utility on your bill for your address in their service line inventory.
Every lead result on file
That is down 3 ppb from 5 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Owasco Water District is 5 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2 ppb |
| 2022 | 5 ppb |
| 2019 | 5 ppb |
| 2016 | 2 ppb |
How Owasco Water District compares
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. Owasco Water District's 2 ppb sits at the 60th percentile in New York and the 72nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
31 other systems share Cayuga County; 9 of them have a higher latest lead result than Owasco Water District. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Auburn | 27,179 | 1.17 ppb |
| Weedsport Village | 2,300 | 1.8 ppb |
| Union Springs Village | 2,000 | 4.2 ppb |
| Moravia Village | 1,950 | 3 ppb |
| Fleming Wd #1 | 1,800 | 0 (not detected) |
| Sennett Consolidated Water Districts | 1,467 | 2.9 ppb |
| Port Byron Village | 1,400 | 0 (not detected) |
| East Brutus Consolidated Water Districts | 1,287 | 5 ppb |
| Fair Haven Village | 1,001 | 13.8 ppb |
| Cayuga County Water & Sewer | 958 | 2 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Auburn, NY 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 Owasco Water District 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.