Tow Water System, TX
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.76 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
Tow Water System serves about 93 people through 31 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Llano County, Texas. EPA system ID: TX1500011; phone on file: 737-376-2534. 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 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Tow Water System is 0.76 ppb across 2 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0.76 ppb |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
Against other Texas systems
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. Tow Water System's 0.76 ppb sits at the 59th percentile in Texas and the 47th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
15 other systems share Llano County; 11 of them have a higher latest lead result than Tow Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Kingsland Wsc | 12,975 | 0.91 ppb |
| City Of Horseshoe Bay | 12,729 | 4.11 ppb |
| City Of Llano | 3,352 | 2.32 ppb |
| Lake Buchanan | 2,484 | 1.33 ppb |
| City Of Sunrise Beach Village | 791 | 1.7 ppb |
| Llano County Mud 1 | 747 | 1.11 ppb |
| Pecan Utilities Oak Ridge Subdivision | 588 | 0 (not detected) |
| 3 G Wsc | 550 | 3.89 ppb |
| Kingsland Wsc Comanche Rancherias | 537 | 2.48 ppb |
| Paradise Point Subdivision | 528 | 2.45 ppb |
Next steps for Austin, TX
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Austin, 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 Tow 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. 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.