Shippensburg Boro Water Auth, PA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1 ppb (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. 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 Shippensburg Boro Water Auth
Shippensburg Boro Water Auth serves about 17,800 people through 6,706 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 Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. EPA system ID: PA7210043; phone on file: 717-532-2147. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Shippensburg Boro Water Auth's lead record
Against the period ending 2022 (1.79 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Shippensburg Boro Water Auth is 1.79 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 ppb |
| 2022 | 1.79 ppb |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 0 (not detected) |
How Shippensburg Boro Water Auth compares
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. Shippensburg Boro Water Auth's 1 ppb sits at the 33rd percentile in Pennsylvania and the 55th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Cumberland County
26 other systems share Cumberland County; 7 of them have a higher latest lead result than Shippensburg Boro Water Auth. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Pa American Water Co West | 105,127 | 0 (not detected) |
| Veolia Mechanicsburg | 45,013 | 3.3 ppb |
| Carlisle Water Trmt Plt | 26,000 | 2.6 ppb |
| South Middleton Twp Water Auth | 11,695 | 1.8 ppb |
| N Middleton Water Auth | 8,455 | 2 ppb |
| Middlesex Twp Muni Auth | 3,527 | 2.5 ppb |
| Mt Holly Springs Boro Auth | 3,261 | - |
| State Correctional Inst | 2,522 | 12 ppb |
| Newville Boro Water Auth | 2,070 | - |
| Us Army Garrison | 1,700 | 60.8 ppb |
Next steps for Shippensburg, PA
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Shippensburg, PA 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 Shippensburg Boro Water Auth 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.