Plum Boro Muni Auth, PA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 3.7 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 Plum Boro Muni Auth
Plum Boro Muni Auth serves about 27,500 people through 10,254 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 surface water, in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. EPA system ID: PA5020041; phone on file: 412-793-7331. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Every lead result on file
That is up 3.7 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Plum Boro Muni Auth is 6.2 ppb across 8 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 3.7 ppb |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 6.2 ppb |
| 2016 | 2 ppb |
Where this result ranks
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. Plum Boro Muni Auth's 3.7 ppb sits at the 63rd percentile in Pennsylvania and the 86th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
36 other systems share Allegheny County; 6 of them have a higher latest lead result than Plum Boro Muni Auth. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Pa Amer Water Co-Pittsburgh | 686,000 | 4 ppb |
| 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) |
| Western Allegheny County Mun A | 19,031 | 0.95 ppb |
Next steps for Pittsburgh, PA
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Pittsburgh, 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 Plum Boro Muni Auth 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.