Pawc Blue Mountain, PA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 5 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.
About Pawc Blue Mountain
Pawc Blue Mountain serves about 23,763 people through 10,033 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws surface water, in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. EPA system ID: PA3480055; phone on file: 610-853-2886. 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 (6 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Pawc Blue Mountain is 6.6 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 ppb |
| 2022 | 6 ppb |
| 2019 | 5.9 ppb |
| 2016 | 6.6 ppb |
How Pawc Blue Mountain compares
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. Pawc Blue Mountain's 5 ppb sits at the 67th percentile in Pennsylvania and the 91st nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
42 other systems share Northampton County; 2 of them have a higher latest lead result than Pawc Blue Mountain. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| City Of Bethlehem | 117,259 | 0 (not detected) |
| Easton Area Water System | 96,867 | 0 (not detected) |
| Northampton Boro Muni Auth | 40,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Pawc Bangor | 9,008 | 0 (not detected) |
| Hellertown Borough Authority | 5,800 | 2 ppb |
| Lower Saucon Authority | 5,700 | 0 (not detected) |
| Walnutport Authority | 3,000 | - |
| Bath Municipal Water Works | 2,680 | - |
| Pawc Westgate | 2,668 | - |
| Portland Boro Authority | 1,100 | - |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Clarks Summit, 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 Pawc Blue Mountain 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.