Owens Crossroads Water Authority, AL
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.36 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.
Owens Crossroads Water Authority at a glance
Owens Crossroads Water Authority serves about 13,569 people through 4,523 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Madison County, Alabama. EPA system ID: AL0000897; phone on file: 256-725-4203. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2022 (1.96 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Owens Crossroads Water Authority is 4.38 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.36 ppb |
| 2022 | 1.96 ppb |
| 2019 | 3.05 ppb |
| 2016 | 4.38 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 542 Alabama systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 1 are over 15 ppb right now and 11 have gone over at some point. Owens Crossroads Water Authority's 1.36 ppb sits at the 76th percentile in Alabama and the 61st nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
8 other systems share Madison County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Owens Crossroads Water Authority. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Huntsville Utilities Water Dept. | 310,107 | 0 (not detected) |
| Madison County Water Department | 119,100 | 2.04 ppb |
| Madison, The W & Ww Board Of The City Of | 54,114 | 0.55 ppb |
| Harvest-Monrovia W,S, And Fp, Inc. | 51,915 | 0 (not detected) |
| Us Army Garrison-Redstone Arsenal | 44,472 | 0 (not detected) |
| Triana Water Works | 7,038 | 0 (not detected) |
| New Hope Water System | 6,231 | 0 (not detected) |
| Gurley Water System | 1,155 | 0 (not detected) |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Owens Cross Roads, AL 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 Owens Crossroads Water Authority 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.