Reading Area Water Authority, PA
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (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 90th-percentile result was reported as 0 (not detected at the lab's limit). That says the sampled homes were low, not that your home has no lead service line. Check your utility's service line inventory for your address.
Reading Area Water Authority at a glance
Reading Area Water Authority serves about 95,100 people through 28,500 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 Berks County, Pennsylvania. EPA system ID: PA3060059; phone on file: 610-655-6253. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2022 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Reading Area Water Authority is 2 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 1 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. Reading Area Water Authority's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 23rd percentile in Pennsylvania and the 40th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Nearby utilities
71 other systems share Berks County; 16 of them have a higher latest lead result than Reading Area Water Authority. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Paw Penn District | 28,508 | 3 ppb |
| Paw Glen Alsace Div | 24,951 | 1 ppb |
| Muhlenberg Twp Muni Auth | 22,400 | 1 ppb |
| Kutztown Borough Water | 14,200 | 3 ppb |
| Shillington Muni Auth | 13,300 | 0 (not detected) |
| Mt Penn Boro Muni Auth | 10,400 | 3.4 ppb |
| Wyomissing Boro Water System | 8,500 | 1 ppb |
| Boyertown Muni Auth | 8,000 | 3.7 ppb |
| Wernersville Muni Water Auth | 7,920 | 0 (not detected) |
| Maidencreek Twp Water Auth | 7,505 | 2 ppb |
Your move
Look up your address in Reading Area Water Authority's service line inventory. If it says lead, galvanized or unknown, test your tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Reading Area Water Authority 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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.