Is Orange County’s Tap Water Safe to Drink? Investigating the Quality and Lead Contamination

Lead is not present in Orange County’s source water, and local utilities do not add it. Where lead turns up in tap water, it enters somewhere between the water main and the faucet — from service lines, solder, brass fittings and fixtures inside individual buildings — which makes it a house-by-house question rather than a countywide one.

Where lead does appear, aging infrastructure is usually the reason. Some older homes and buildings still have lead solder, galvanized pipe or brass fixtures that can leach lead into the water.

Lead is regulated differently from most contaminants. Instead of a maximum contaminant level, the federal Lead and Copper Rule sets an action level of 15 parts per billion measured at customers’ taps, and California’s public health goal is 0.2 ppb. When a system exceeds the action level in more than 10% of sampled homes, it has to notify customers and take corrective steps.

Because the risk depends on what your own pipes and fixtures are made of, a countywide result cannot tell you what is coming out of your tap. Testing your own water is the only way to know where your household actually stands.

The way to find out where your own tap stands is to test it. schedule a free water test with Culligan of Orange County!

Utilities are required to sample for lead at a set number of household taps and report the results each year. Those results are worth reading, and also worth understanding precisely: the 15 parts per billion figure most often quoted is an action level that triggers utility-side corrosion control, not a health-based safety line. The EPA’s maximum contaminant level goal for lead is zero, and because lead comes from each building’s own plumbing, a sample of homes describes the system rather than your house.

1. Is there lead in Orange County’s drinking water?
Lead is not in the source water, and local utilities do not add it. Where lead shows up at a tap, it has come from that building’s own plumbing — the service line, solder, brass fittings or fixtures — which makes it a question about your property rather than about the county. Testing your water is how a household finds out. Lead-based paint and lead in soil are separate exposure routes, assessed separately from drinking water.

2. How does lead exposure occur in Orange County?
Lead exposure in Orange County can occur through various sources. Older homes with lead-based paint, industrial activities, and contaminated soil can contribute to lead exposure. Additionally, aging infrastructure and plumbing systems can lead to lead leaching into drinking water.

3. What are the regulated limits for lead?
There is no maximum contaminant level for lead the way there is for most contaminants. The federal action level is 15 parts per billion measured at the tap, California’s public health goal is 0.2 ppb, and the EPA’s maximum contaminant level goal is zero. The action level is a trigger for utility-side corrosion control, not a line between safe and unsafe.

4. What can I do if my water tests positive?
Start by finding out what your service line and interior plumbing are made of; your utility can tell you whether your service line has been surveyed. A point-of-use system certified for lead reduction (NSF/ANSI 53 or 58) treats water at the tap you drink from. Running the tap before use after long idle periods is an interim measure, not a fix. Lead-based paint and lead in soil are separate exposure routes, assessed separately from drinking water.

5. How is lead in Orange County’s water monitored?
Every community water system has to sample for lead at a set number of household taps each year, publish the results in an annual water quality report, and keep an inventory of the service line materials it owns. Orange County is served by a number of retail utilities, so the report that applies to you is the one from whichever utility bills you — they can also tell you whether your service line has been surveyed. Because those results describe the system rather than any individual property, a tap test is still what establishes what is reaching your faucet.

Lead is worth taking seriously precisely because it gives no warning. It has no taste, no color and no smell, and the source is the plumbing inside the building rather than anything the utility delivers. That combination means one home can be fine and the house next door not, regardless of what the countywide numbers say, and testing is the only way to tell the difference.

Treated water can still pick up lead on its way to the tap if the service line, solder or fixtures in the building contain it, which is why the test that matters is the one taken at your own faucet.

Because lead comes from the building’s own plumbing, a tap test is the only way to know your own level. That matters most for residents of Orange County in older homes especially, where lead solder and brass fittings were common.

In the U.S., 14-20% of lead exposure is attributed to drinking water. Municipalities have taken action over the past 30 years to ban lead solder, reduce corrosivity and remove lead from brass faucets and water meters, and these measures have significantly helped exposure issues.

Lead lends itself very easily to building pipes – like those used for transporting water. It’s malleable, relatively cheap to use and, as a result, its use in plumbing dates back to early Roman cities. Lead piping was also the standard in the United States until the 1920s and 30s, when concerns about lead poisoning became better understood.

The most common way lead can enter a drinking water system is through corrosive aging pipes and plumbing infrastructure. Many homes, and sometimes entire communities, have plumbing infrastructure that has not been updated for decades, and sometimes more than a century.

These homes are at high risk for lead contamination, even if the water coming through it has been properly treated.

When pipes, fitting or solder have become corroded, water can become contaminated.

The best way to avoid a lead problem is to never have one. Despite the ongoing issues in many cities throughout America, many homeowners are simply not keen on getting a simple water test.

A test can determine whether your household has lead in its tap water, and whether that exposure can be reduced in the interim by flushing the line for a specified amount of time. That tells you whether interim steps are worth taking while you plan a permanent fix.