Thorn Water Association, MS
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.6 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.
Thorn Water Association at a glance
Thorn Water Association serves about 1,756 people through 665 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is under mixed public and private ownership and draws groundwater, in Chickasaw County, Mississippi. EPA system ID: MS0090024; phone on file: 662-682-7406. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Every lead result on file
That is up 1.2 ppb from 1.4 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Thorn Water Association is 2.6 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2.6 ppb |
| 2022 | 1.4 ppb |
| 2019 | 2.1 ppb |
| 2017 | 1.8 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 973 Mississippi systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 9 are over 15 ppb right now and 44 have gone over at some point. Thorn Water Association's 2.6 ppb sits at the 86th percentile in Mississippi and the 78th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
10 other systems share Chickasaw County; 2 of them have a higher latest lead result than Thorn Water Association. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| City Of Houston | 3,772 | 4.6 ppb |
| City Of Okolona | 2,800 | 0 (not detected) |
| Sparta Water Association #1 | 2,532 | 1.2 ppb |
| Southeast Chickasaw W/A #1 | 1,969 | 6.2 ppb |
| Houlka-Houston W/A | 1,668 | 0.6 ppb |
| Town Of New Houlka | 1,515 | 2.28 ppb |
| East Chickasaw W/A #1 | 1,463 | 2.5 ppb |
| East Chickasaw W/A #2 | 1,238 | 0.7 ppb |
| Atlanta Water System, Inc. | 700 | 0.8 ppb |
| Ccm, Inc | 380 | 1.2 ppb |
Next steps for Houston, MS
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Houston, MS 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 Thorn Water Association 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.