Owensby Mill S/D, GA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.5 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.
Owensby Mill S/D at a glance
Owensby Mill S/D serves about 36 people through 14 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Gilmer County, Georgia. EPA system ID: GA1230065; phone on file: 706-745-2033. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Owensby Mill S/D's lead record
Against the period ending 2022 (1.8 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Owensby Mill S/D is 8.7 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2.5 ppb |
| 2022 | 1.8 ppb |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 8.7 ppb |
How Owensby Mill S/D 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. Owensby Mill S/D's 2.5 ppb sits at the 79th percentile in Georgia and the 77th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
13 other systems share Gilmer County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Owensby Mill S/D. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Ellijay-Gilmer Co. Water Auth. | 13,010 | 2.3 ppb |
| Eagles Mountain Campground | 1,820 | 0 (not detected) |
| Walnut Mountain S/D Poa | 1,105 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cherry Log Mtn.-Indian Rock | 283 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cherry Log Mtn.-Granny Lake | 265 | 0 (not detected) |
| Laurel Ridge | 224 | 0 (not detected) |
| Lake Buckhorn | 164 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cherry Log Mountain I | 151 | 0 (not detected) |
| Carters Lake Estates | 148 | 0.7 ppb |
| Hidden Lake | 112 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Blairsville, 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 Owensby Mill S/D 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.