Portersville East Branch Water Co., OH
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 4.3 ppb (monitoring period 2022-2024). 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 Portersville East Branch Water Co.
Portersville East Branch Water Co. serves about 2,340 people through 959 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 groundwater, in Perry County, Ohio. EPA system ID: OH6402303; phone on file: 740-342-1290. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
That is up 4.3 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2021. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Portersville East Branch Water Co. is 4.3 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 4.3 ppb |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
Where this result ranks
Of the 1,079 Ohio systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0.7 ppb; 1 are over 15 ppb right now and 27 have gone over at some point. Portersville East Branch Water Co.'s 4.3 ppb sits at the 95th percentile in Ohio and the 89th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
19 other systems share Perry County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Portersville East Branch Water Co.. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| New Lexington | 5,161 | 0 (not detected) |
| Southern Perry Co-Congo | 4,029 | 0 (not detected) |
| Old Straitsville Water Association | 2,950 | 0 (not detected) |
| Crooksville | 2,534 | 1.4 ppb |
| Northern Perry Co.Water #2 | 1,802 | 3.2 ppb |
| Northern Perry Co.Water #1 | 1,706 | 0 (not detected) |
| Somerset Village Of | 1,490 | 0 (not detected) |
| Thornville, Village Of | 991 | 1.76 ppb |
| Junction City | 819 | 0 (not detected) |
| New Straitsville, Village Of | 652 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Malta, OH
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Malta, OH 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 Portersville East Branch Water Co. 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.