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Pawc Marcel Lakes

What EPA’s and Pennsylvania’s records show in this utility’s water: PFAS; nitrate, arsenic and other regulated chemicals; lead and copper; and violations since 2016, with the certification that handles each result.

Serves
1,048 people
Connections
365
Water source
Groundwater
Based in
Tobyhanna, PA
County
Pike
Owner
Private
The ZIP code it serves

18328

The short answer

1 result is above the health goal. The worst: Lead, above the health goal. No health-based violations on file since 2016.

What handles it

What was found

PFAS: Pennsylvania’s own results under its PFAS rule, entry point samples taken from Jan. 31, 2024 to July 15, 2026.

Lead and copper: EPA SDWIS monitoring periods ending 1995 to 1996.

Nitrate, total trihalomethanes (TTHM), arsenic, chromium (total), fluoride, haloacetic acids (HAA5) and uranium: Pennsylvania’s own results, samples taken from July 27, 2020 to Aug. 10, 2026, with EPA’s 2012 to 2019 file for earlier years.

PFAS: None of the six PFAS in EPA’s 2024 drinking water rule was found in this utility’s samples.

EPA’s 2024 PFAS rule, compound by compound

PFASEPA’s limitResult
PFOA4.0 pptNot foundNot found in any of 12 samples
PFOS4.0 pptNot foundNot found in any of 12 samples
PFHxS10 pptNot foundNot found in any of 4 samples
PFNA10 pptNot foundNot found in any of 4 samples
HFPO-DA (GenX)10 pptNot foundNot found in any of 4 samples
PFBSIndex onlyNot foundNot found in any of 4 samples
Results from Pennsylvania’s own PFAS monitoring, samples where water enters the pipes; each compound’s card has its four-quarter averages, the way limits are judged. The limits are EPA’s 2024 rule, with compliance due from 2029; EPA has since proposed changes to some of them, explained on each compound’s page. Pennsylvania’s own limits for PFOA and PFOS are in force now. PFBS has no limit of its own and counts only toward EPA’s Hazard Index, which TapBuff works out only from UCMR 5’s averages, so it isn’t given here.

Above the health goal1

Lead

Comes from pipes, often your own

Above the health goal

4.0ppb

90th percentile, 1996

In the latest period, 9 in 10 homes sampled were at or below 4.0 ppb, below EPA’s action level of 15 ppb. The action level drops to 10 ppb on Nov. 1, 2027. EPA’s health goal for lead is zero.

What handles it

Below EPA’s limits2

Nitrate

Comes from the source

Below EPA’s limits

0.34ppm

Highest sample; found in 14 of 14

2026 average: 0.3 ppm

The highest sample, in 2026, was 0.34 ppm, below EPA’s legal limit of 10 ppm. That was also the latest year on file, and its two samples averaged 0.3 ppm. Earlier, from 2012 to 2019, EPA’s file shows a highest sample of 0.36 ppm, in 2018.

What handles it

  • NSF/ANSI 58 look for “Nitrate/Nitrite Reduction”
  • NSF/ANSI 53 look for “Nitrate/Nitrite (30 ppm challenge)”

Total trihalomethanes (TTHM)

Forms or is added in treatment

Below EPA’s limits

1.7ppb

Highest yearly average, 2020 to 2026

Averaged by year, the highest was 1.7 ppb, in 2026, below EPA’s legal limit of 80 ppb. That was also the latest year on file. Earlier, from 2012 to 2019, EPA’s file shows a highest yearly average of 8.8 ppb, in 2017.

What handles it

  • NSF/ANSI 53 look for “Trihalomethanes (TTHM) Reduction”
  • NSF/ANSI 58 look for “Trihalomethanes (TTHM) Reduction”
11 compounds tested and not foundIncluding all six PFAS in EPA’s 2024 rule. Below the reporting level in every sample. Not found is not the same as zero.

From routine monitoring

  • Arsenic
  • Chromium (total)
  • Fluoride
  • Haloacetic acids (HAA5)
  • Uranium

PFAS, from Pennsylvania’s own monitoring

  • HFPO-DA (GenX)
  • PFBS
  • PFHxS
  • PFNA
  • PFOA
  • PFOS

What handles it

A certification covers specific claims, not a whole standard. Look for these claims on the certifier’s listing, not the box. Wording varies a little: NSF writes “Lead Reduction,” WQA just “Lead.”

At the tap, or for the whole house?

Lead and copper usually come from pipes and fixtures inside or near your home. A whole-house system sits where water enters, so it cannot catch what your own plumbing adds after it. For those, the filter that counts is the one at the tap. How whole-house systems compare.

Filters with those claims on a certifier’s listing

Disclosure: TapBuff earns a commission if you buy through some links on this page. It does not change which standard or filter we name. As an Amazon Associate, TapBuff earns from qualifying purchases. How TapBuff makes money

Compare five-year costs

The best water filters for lead, ranked

Violations since 2016

No health-based violations on file with EPA since 2016. There is 1 monitoring or reporting violation: a sample missed, late or not reported.

What this report can’t tell you

  • Everything else. Nitrate, total trihalomethanes (TTHM), arsenic, chromium (total), fluoride, haloacetic acids (HAA5) and uranium results here are Pennsylvania’s own from 2020 on, with EPA’s national file for 2012 to 2019. Pawc Marcel Lakes’s own annual report, which it must send you every year, has the contaminants this page does not show.

  • Your own plumbing. Lead results are the 90th percentile across homes the utility samples. Your home’s service line, solder and fixtures decide yours. A certified lab test is the only way to know.

  • What it means for your health. This page reports what the records show and EPA’s limits and goals; it is not medical advice. If you are worried about a health effect, talk to a doctor or your local health department.

  • Anything after the latest data. SDWIS data is from 2026 Q3; UCMR 5 didn’t sample this utility; Pennsylvania’s results run from July 27, 2020 to Aug. 10, 2026; Pennsylvania’s PFAS results run from Jan. 31, 2024 to July 15, 2026.

Testing your own tap

Pawc Marcel Lakes’s results are for the water it sends out. What your own service line, solder and fixtures add shows up only in a test of your tap, by a lab Pennsylvania certifies.

The 3 labs Pennsylvania certifies closest to the area Pawc Marcel Lakes serves, in a straight line. Call first: certification is test by test, and not every lab takes samples from homeowners.

  • Eurofins Philadelphia - Wind Gap

    Wind Gap, PA · about 33 miles

    (215) 355-3900

  • AG Environmental RSC LLC

    Ferndale, NY · about 37 miles

    Certified for bacteria, nitrate, lead and copper, metals, minerals and other inorganics, organic chemicals, radioactivity

    (845) 704-8151

  • Princeton Analytical Labs

    Dunmore, PA · about 37 miles

    Certified for bacteria, nitrate, lead and copper, metals, minerals and other inorganics

    (570) 209-7916

Penn State Agricultural Analytical Services Laboratory: Drinking water test kits from many county Extension offices, mailed back to the lab overnight with payment. Packages cover bacteria and basic chemistry, with add-ons for nitrate, metals, lead, and mining or gas drilling concerns. The standard package of bacteria, pH and total dissolved solids is $60, or $70 with nitrate; bacteria alone is $40, nitrate $15 and lead $25. Drinking Water Testing, Penn State Agricultural Analytical Services Lab.

All 108 certified labs for Pennsylvania

Sources

PWSID PA2520035. Rebuilt from EPA data on Oct. 18, 2026.

Also in Pike County

All Pennsylvania utilities

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