Study Butte Terlingua Water System, TX
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.82 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. The latest result is under the action level, but this system has gone over 15 ppb before. Lead comes from pipes, not the source water, so a home with a lead service line can still be exposed. Test your own tap.
Who runs the water here
Study Butte Terlingua Water System serves about 888 people through 296 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 Brewster County, Texas. EPA system ID: TX0220035; phone on file: 432-371-2933. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Every lead result on file
That is up 1.82 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2024. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Study Butte Terlingua Water System is 27.2 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.82 ppb |
| 2024 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2023 | 1.67 ppb |
| 2023 | 3.44 ppb |
| 2022 | 27.2 ppb over 15 |
How Study Butte Terlingua Water System compares
Of the 4,447 Texas systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0.28 ppb; 15 are over 15 ppb right now and 202 have gone over at some point. Study Butte Terlingua Water System's 1.82 ppb sits at the 80th percentile in Texas and the 68th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
5 other systems share Brewster County; 2 of them have a higher latest lead result than Study Butte Terlingua Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| City Of Alpine | 6,000 | 2.1 ppb |
| Lajitas On The Rio Grande | 942 | 0 (not detected) |
| Marathon Water Supply & Sewer Service | 430 | 0.61 ppb |
| Panther Junction Plt | 300 | 1.56 ppb |
| Mcelroy Ranch Water System | 45 | 4.89 ppb |
Next steps for Terlingua, TX
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Terlingua, TX 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 Study Butte Terlingua 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. The lead result guide covers how utilities pick the homes they sample. Why an old exceedance still matters: over the limit before, under it now.