Paul Smiths College, NY
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 8.1 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. The latest result is under the action level, but this system has gone over 15 ppb before. Lead comes from pipes, not the source water, so a home with a lead service line can still be exposed. Test your own tap.
Who runs the water here
Paul Smiths College serves about 1,100 people through 35 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Franklin County, New York. EPA system ID: NY1612265; phone on file: 518-327-6436. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Paul Smiths College's lead record
That is down 75.9 ppb from 84 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Paul Smiths College is 610 ppb across 9 monitoring periods, 6 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 8.1 ppb |
| 2025 | 84 ppb over 15 |
| 2024 | 610 ppb over 15 |
| 2024 | 46.2 ppb over 15 |
| 2023 | 47 ppb over 15 |
| 2023 | 100 ppb over 15 |
| 2022 | 55 ppb over 15 |
| 2020 | 6.2 ppb |
| 2017 | 6.6 ppb |
Against other New York systems
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. Paul Smiths College's 8.1 ppb sits at the 94th percentile in New York and the 96th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
14 other systems share Franklin County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Paul Smiths College. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Malone V | 13,232 | 0 (not detected) |
| Tupper Lake V | 5,500 | 2.3 ppb |
| Saranac Lake V | 5,345 | 1.1 ppb |
| Chateaugay V | 1,100 | 2.2 ppb |
| St Regis Falls Wd | 980 | 0 (not detected) |
| Fort Covington Wd | 900 | 2.1 ppb |
| Cliffside Apartments | 500 | 0 (not detected) |
| Bangor Wd | 375 | 6 ppb |
| Burke V | 273 | 1.1 ppb |
| Thayers Corners Wd | 160 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Paul Smiths, 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 Paul Smiths College whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 1400 ppb (copper action level 1,300 ppb).
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. Why an old exceedance still matters: over the limit before, under it now.