State College Boro Water Auth, PA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 3.7 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.
State College Boro Water Auth at a glance
State College Boro Water Auth serves about 72,000 people through 14,711 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 Centre County, Pennsylvania. EPA system ID: PA4140096; phone on file: 814-238-6766. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2022 (3.3 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for State College Boro Water Auth is 3.7 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 3.7 ppb |
| 2022 | 3.3 ppb |
| 2019 | 2.22 ppb |
| 2016 | 2.58 ppb |
How State College 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. State College Boro Water Auth's 3.7 ppb sits at the 64th percentile in Pennsylvania and the 86th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
42 other systems share Centre County; 4 of them have a higher latest lead result than State College Boro Water Auth. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Penn State Univ | 37,000 | 10.8 ppb |
| Paw Philipsburg | 20,865 | 0 (not detected) |
| Bellefonte Borough Water Auth | 9,500 | 4.62 ppb |
| College Twp Water Authority | 6,000 | 2.4 ppb |
| Mountaintop Reg Water Auth | 3,456 | 0 (not detected) |
| Spring Twp Water Authority | 3,300 | 2.9 ppb |
| Walker Twp Water Assn | 3,250 | - |
| State Corr Inst Benner Twp | 2,850 | 2.69 ppb |
| Milesburg Borough Water Auth | 2,750 | - |
| Centre Hall Boro Water Dept | 1,900 | 43.27 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; State College, 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 State College 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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.