West Tehachapi Mutual, CA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.9 ppb (monitoring period 2022-2024). 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
West Tehachapi Mutual serves about 150 people through 36 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Kern County, California. EPA system ID: CA1500340; phone on file: 310-567-1500. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Every lead result on file
That is up 2.3 ppb from 0.6 ppb in the period ending 2021. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for West Tehachapi Mutual is 2.9 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 2.9 ppb |
| 2021 | 0.6 ppb |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
Against other California systems
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. West Tehachapi Mutual's 2.9 ppb sits at the 84th percentile in California and the 80th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Kern County
165 other systems share Kern County; 20 of them have a higher latest lead result than West Tehachapi Mutual. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Cws - Bakersfield | 268,129 | 2.8 ppb |
| Bakersfield, City Of | 171,108 | 1.3 ppb |
| Delano, City Of | 51,428 | 0 (not detected) |
| Oildale Mwc | 45,315 | 0 (not detected) |
| Indian Wells Valley W.D. | 41,474 | 0 (not detected) |
| Tejon Castac Wd - I5 & Laval Rd | 38,125 | 0 (not detected) |
| Antelope Valley E Kern Wtr Agy-Rosamond | 37,634 | - |
| Vaughn Wc Inc | 37,189 | 0 (not detected) |
| East Niles Csd | 32,517 | 1.4 ppb |
| Cws - North Garden | 27,634 | 4.2 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Tehachapi, 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 West Tehachapi Mutual 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.