Royal City Water, WA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 3 ppb (monitoring period 2024-2025). 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 Royal City Water
Royal City Water serves about 3,389 people through 622 service connections, which makes it a medium-sized system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Grant County, Washington. EPA system ID: WA5374700. Ask the utility on your bill for your address in their service line inventory.
Lead results over time
That is up 1.8 ppb from 1.2 ppb in the period ending 2023. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Royal City Water is 3 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 3 ppb |
| 2023 | 1.2 ppb |
| 2020 | 2.5 ppb |
| 2017 | 2.3 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 2,218 Washington systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 18 are over 15 ppb right now and 62 have gone over at some point. Royal City Water's 3 ppb sits at the 82nd percentile in Washington and the 82nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Grant County
80 other systems share Grant County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than Royal City Water. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Moses Lake City Of | 32,428 | 3.2 ppb |
| Ephrata Water Department | 8,718 | 0 (not detected) |
| Quincy Water Department City Of | 8,415 | 2.5 ppb |
| Mattawa City Of | 5,370 | 0 (not detected) |
| Warden City Of | 4,674 | 0 (not detected) |
| Desert Aire Owner Assn | 2,856 | 1 ppb |
| Soap Lake Water Dept | 2,399 | 0 (not detected) |
| Electric City City Of | 1,812 | 2.6 ppb |
| Sunland Estates Homeowners Assn | 1,480 | 0 (not detected) |
| Grand Coulee Water Dept City Of | 1,428 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Royal City, WA 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 Royal City 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. Size matters more than most people expect: small vs large water systems.