Pa Amer Water Co-Pittsburgh, PA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 4 ppb (monitoring period 2025-2025). 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
Pa Amer Water Co-Pittsburgh serves about 686,000 people through 215,173 service connections, which makes it a very large system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws surface water, in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. EPA system ID: PA5020039; phone on file: 412-885-6064. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Pa Amer Water Co-Pittsburgh's lead record
Against the period ending 2022 (3.8 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Pa Amer Water Co-Pittsburgh is 4 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 4 ppb |
| 2022 | 3.8 ppb |
| 2019 | 1 ppb |
| 2016 | 2.8 ppb |
Against other Pennsylvania systems
Of the 516 Pennsylvania systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 2 ppb; 143 are over 15 ppb right now and 156 have gone over at some point. Pa Amer Water Co-Pittsburgh's 4 ppb sits at the 65th percentile in Pennsylvania and the 88th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Allegheny County
36 other systems share Allegheny County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than Pa Amer Water Co-Pittsburgh. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Auth | 520,000 | 2 ppb |
| West View Water Authority | 200,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Wilkinsburg-Penn Jt Water Auth | 125,000 | 9.78 ppb |
| Hampton Shaler Water Authority | 61,949 | 1.26 ppb |
| Monroeville Municipal Auth | 48,500 | 1.5 ppb |
| Oakmont Water Authority | 39,901 | 0.46 ppb |
| Moon Twp Muni Auth | 38,000 | 1.87 ppb |
| West Cnty Muni Auth-Mckeesport | 32,644 | 0 (not detected) |
| Plum Boro Muni Auth | 27,500 | 3.7 ppb |
| Western Allegheny County Mun A | 19,031 | 0.95 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Elrama, PA 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 Pa Amer Water Co-Pittsburgh 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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.