Sunset Beach Mutual Water Co, CA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.4 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
Sunset Beach Mutual Water Co serves about 182 people through 65 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws surface water, in Santa Cruz County, California. EPA system ID: CA4400599; phone on file: 408-639-8412. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2022 (2.3 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Sunset Beach Mutual Water Co is 2.3 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.4 ppb |
| 2022 | 2.3 ppb |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 0 (not detected) |
Where this result ranks
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. Sunset Beach Mutual Water Co's 1.4 ppb sits at the 74th percentile in California and the 62nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
51 other systems share Santa Cruz County; 19 of them have a higher latest lead result than Sunset Beach Mutual Water Co. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Santa Cruz Water Department | 94,626 | 0 (not detected) |
| Watsonville, City Of | 65,231 | 1.2 ppb |
| Soquel Creek Water District | 40,962 | 2 ppb |
| San Lorenzo Valley Water Dist | 21,513 | 2.7 ppb |
| Scotts Valley Water District | 11,197 | 0.69 ppb |
| Slvwd - Felton Water System | 4,491 | 0.95 ppb |
| Central Water District | 2,726 | 0 (not detected) |
| Mission Springs Conference Center | 1,310 | 2.4 ppb |
| Mt. Hermon Association, Inc. | 1,176 | 0 (not detected) |
| Big Basin Water Company | 1,120 | 12 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Watsonville, 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 Sunset Beach Mutual Water Co 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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.