Rocky Branch Water System, LA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.6 ppb (monitoring period 2023-2025). 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.
Who runs the water here
Rocky Branch Water System serves about 1,650 people through 550 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 Union Parish County, Louisiana. EPA system ID: LA1111013; phone on file: 318-366-4013. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Rocky Branch Water System's lead record
Against the period ending 2022 (1 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Rocky Branch Water System is 1.6 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.6 ppb |
| 2022 | 1 ppb |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 1 ppb |
How Rocky Branch Water System compares
Of the 802 Louisiana systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0.72 ppb; 4 are over 15 ppb right now and 30 have gone over at some point. Rocky Branch Water System's 1.6 ppb sits at the 71st percentile in Louisiana and the 65th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
17 other systems share Union Parish County; 4 of them have a higher latest lead result than Rocky Branch Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Town Of Farmerville Water System | 5,352 | 1.3 ppb |
| Darbonne Ws South | 3,261 | 0 (not detected) |
| Darbonne Ws North | 3,186 | 0 (not detected) |
| Holmesville Water System | 2,406 | 0 (not detected) |
| Point Wilhite Ws | 2,292 | 0 (not detected) |
| Town Of Bernice Water System | 1,863 | 0 (not detected) |
| Linville-Haile Water System | 1,635 | 2.4 ppb |
| Union Parish Waterworks District 1 | 1,626 | 0.75 ppb |
| Wards Chapel Water System | 1,620 | 1.2 ppb |
| Village Of Marion Water System | 1,533 | 2 ppb |
Next steps for Farmerville, LA
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Farmerville, LA 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 Rocky Branch Water System 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.