St. Pauls Church-Owens, CA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 3.4 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
St. Pauls Church-Owens serves about 242 people through 99 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in King George County, California. EPA system ID: VA6099550; phone on file: 540-775-8562. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Lead results over time
That is up 3.4 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for St. Pauls Church-Owens is 3.4 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 3.4 ppb |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 2.2 ppb |
Against other California systems
Of the 2,884 California systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 30 are over 15 ppb right now and 215 have gone over at some point. St. Pauls Church-Owens's 3.4 ppb sits at the 87th percentile in California and the 85th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in King George County
8 other systems share King George County; 2 of them have a higher latest lead result than St. Pauls Church-Owens. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| King George Co. Courthouse | 3,985 | 0 (not detected) |
| Kgcsa-Dahlgren | 2,650 | 0 (not detected) |
| Hopyard Farm | 1,772 | 0 (not detected) |
| Oakland Park | 1,659 | 3.92 ppb |
| Fairview Beach-Potomac Landing | 928 | 5.6 ppb |
| Circle | 230 | 0.28 ppb |
| Canterbury Subdivision | 208 | 0 (not detected) |
| Nindes Store | 97 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; King George, CA 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 St. Pauls Church-Owens 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.