Port Austin Area Sewer & Water, MI
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.3 ppb (monitoring period 2021-2023). 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.
Port Austin Area Sewer & Water at a glance
Port Austin Area Sewer & Water serves about 1,004 people through 700 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Huron County, Michigan. EPA system ID: MI0005460; phone on file: 989-550-2949. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Every lead result on file
The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Port Austin Area Sewer & Water is 1.3 ppb across 1 monitoring period, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 1.3 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 1,227 Michigan systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 31 are over 15 ppb right now and 109 have gone over at some point. Port Austin Area Sewer & Water's 1.3 ppb sits at the 53rd percentile in Michigan and the 60th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
18 other systems share Huron County; 12 of them have a higher latest lead result than Port Austin Area Sewer & Water. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Bad Axe | 3,129 | 3 ppb |
| Caseville Township | 2,005 | 2 ppb |
| Sebewaing Light & Water | 1,721 | 14 ppb |
| Harbor Beach, City Of | 1,604 | 0 (not detected) |
| Pigeon, Village Of | 1,208 | 7 ppb |
| Port Hope-Gore-Rubicon U. A. | 1,058 | 6 ppb |
| Ubly, Village Of | 858 | 1.5 ppb |
| Elkton, Village Of | 808 | 4.1 ppb |
| Caseville, City Of | 777 | - |
| Sand Beach Township | 525 | 2 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Port Austin, MI 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 Port Austin Area Sewer & Water 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.