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County water report

St. Helena Parish Water Report

Drinking-water compliance, watershed health, monitoring records, and river conditions for St. Helena Parish, Louisiana.

Water grade

F

Water score

23.8

State rank

#29

of 63

Health violations

10

EPA SDWIS, 5-year lookback

Watershed impaired

83.7%

43 water bodies assessed

Monitoring sites

N/A

EPA Water Quality Portal

Live streamflow

113%

Amite River near Darlington, LA

Water at a glance

Key Water Indicators for St. Helena Parish

EPA SDWIS

Safety Grade

F

Score: 23.8 / 100

EPA SDWIS

Active Violations

10

5-year health-based lookback

EPA ATTAINS

Watershed Health

84% impaired

43 bodies assessed

USGS NWIS

Streamflow Snapshot

113% of mean

Amite River near Darlington, LA

EPA WQP

Monitoring Sites

N/A

Rolling 5-year window

Source: EPA SDWIS · Safe Drinking Water Information System

Drinking Water Compliance

Compliance grade

F

Based on EPA SDWIS compliance history.

Water score

Higher scores indicate cleaner recent compliance records.

23.8/100

Health violations

10

Health-based violations

Violations per 100K served

96.1

Population-normalized SDWIS rate

Editorial analysis

Understanding St. Helena Parish’s Water

Drinking Water Quality Overview

EPA SDWIS

St. Helena Parish's water systems carry a failing grade, scoring 23.8 out of 100. Over the past five years, EPA SDWIS records 10 health-based violations — a pattern that public water utilities are required to disclose and correct.

Watershed Conditions

EPA ATTAINS

Under the Clean Water Act §303(d), EPA ATTAINS tracks whether waterways meet quality standards for drinking, recreation, and aquatic life (reporting cycle: 2022). A large majority — 83.7% — of assessed waterways are impaired (36 of 43 water bodies) across St. Helena Parish's watersheds. The leading impairment causes are dissolved oxygen and mercury - fish consumption advisory. Impairment does not mean tap water is unsafe — it measures ambient waterway conditions upstream of treatment, not finished drinking water.

River & Streamflow Status

USGS NWIS

USGS NWIS gauge data (as of 2026-05-14T13:15:00.000-05:00) puts Amite River at 1.0k cfs — flowing above its historical average at 113% of mean. Streamflow is a leading indicator of drought stress, sediment load, and dilution capacity: low flows concentrate pollutants and warm water temperatures, stressing aquatic life and, in surface-water-dependent systems, the source water quality for treatment plants.

Editorial advisory

What the data suggests for St. Helena Parish

Water Verdict

St. Helena Parish, Louisiana receives a poor water quality assessment with a grade of F and a score of 23.8 out of 100. The water supply has documented quality issues. Residents are strongly encouraged to use filtered or bottled water for drinking and to stay informed about utility improvement plans. Separately, EPA ATTAINS assessments cover 43 water bodies in the county's watershed, with 83.7% listed as impaired under the Clean Water Act — a source-water measure that is tracked independently of tap-water compliance. At the most recent USGS reading, local streamflow was running above its historical mean at 113.4%.

Violation Context

EPA SDWIS records for St. Helena Parish, Louisiana show 10 health-based violations, indicating multiple instances where federal contaminant limits or treatment requirements were not met. At 96.1 violations per 100,000 people served, this rate is high and signals significant water quality management issues. The most recent Clean Water Act assessment cycle on file for the county's watershed is 2022.

Consumer Guidance

Drinking-water compliance in St. Helena Parish is rated Grade F, reflecting significant health-based violations in the recent reporting period. St. Helena Parish's drinking-water compliance score is 23.8 out of 100. The violation rate for St. Helena Parish is 96.1 per 100,000 people served. An NSF 53 or NSF 58-certified filter is recommended for drinking and cooking water. Check the Consumer Confidence Report from your utility to identify the specific contaminants and required corrective actions — utilities are legally required to notify customers of violations. Dissolved Oxygen is the leading impairment cause in St. Helena Parish's watershed. A pipeline streamflow snapshot from the Amite River gauge is also available on this page.

Regional Context

St. Helena Parish has poorer water quality than the average county in Louisiana. Its water score is 6.3 points lower than the state average, suggesting more challenges with contamination control or infrastructure than neighboring counties.

Advisory text summarizes county-level public records and is not a replacement for your utility's current Consumer Confidence Report or direct local notices.

Contaminants & Resources

Key issues flagged in St. Helena Parish's water environment

Watershed Impairment Causes (EPA ATTAINS)

  • 1

    Low dissolved oxygen

    Impairment cause per EPA Clean Water Act §303(d) assessment

  • 2

    Mercury - Fish Consumption Advisory

    Impairment cause per EPA Clean Water Act §303(d) assessment

  • 3

    Fecal coliform bacteria

    Impairment cause per EPA Clean Water Act §303(d) assessment

Source: EPA ATTAINS · Reporting cycle 2022

Official EPA Resources for St. Helena Parish

EPA How's My Waterway

Interactive watershed health data for St. Helena Parish

EPA ECHO: Drinking Water Systems

Search water utilities and violation records for St. Helena Parish

Consumer Confidence Reports (LA)

Annual water quality reports from utilities in Louisiana

Clean Water Act §303(d)

Watershed Health

Impaired Water Bodies

83.7%

36 of 43 assessed

High concern

Top Impairment Causes

  • 1

    DISSOLVED OXYGEN

  • 2

    MERCURY - FISH CONSUMPTION ADVISORY

  • 3

    FECAL COLIFORM

Source: EPA ATTAINS · Reporting cycle 2022

Impairment is determined under the Clean Water Act §303(d): a water body is impaired when it fails to meet state-defined quality standards for designated uses (drinking, recreation, aquatic life). Assessment coverage varies by state; counties without assessed water bodies are not shown.

Live USGS Streamgage

River & Stream Conditions

Current Discharge

1,020cfs

May 14, 6:15 PM UTC

vs Long-Term Average

113%

Above typical

Primary Streamgage

Amite River near Darlington, LA

USGS site
07377000
Drainage area
580 sq mi
Long-term mean
899 cfs

One representative streamgage (the one with the largest drainage area in the county). Many counties have multiple gauges; this view summarizes the primary one. The long-term mean is the full-record annual average; the percent-of-typical value compares the latest reading against that average.

Free tool

Estimate Your Water Costs

Water Cost Estimate

3

3 people  ·  ~225 gal/day

Annual Total

$558

Monthly

$47

Water Bill

$558/yr

Filter Cost

$0/yr

Safety Grade for St. Helena Parish:F — Failing

High violation count or severe watershed conditions.

Estimates use the national average residential water rate ($0.0068/gal, EPA/AWWA 2023) and EPA WaterSense per-person consumption baseline (75 gal/person/day). Actual bills vary by utility, usage tier, and local infrastructure fees. For informational purposes only.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the water quality in St. Helena Parish, Louisiana?
St. Helena Parish, Louisiana has a drinking-water quality grade of F with a score of 23.8/100, based on EPA SDWIS compliance data. The county has 10 health-based drinking water violations over the past 5 years. Watershed health, monitoring records, and streamflow snapshots are reported separately on this page.
Are there any water violations in St. Helena Parish?
St. Helena Parish has 10 health-based drinking water violations recorded by the EPA over the past 5 years. Health-based violations indicate instances where contaminant levels exceeded EPA Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs). Violations may have been resolved — check with your local water utility for current status.
How healthy are the watersheds in St. Helena Parish?
EPA ATTAINS assessments under Clean Water Act §303(d) indicate 83.7% of St. Helena Parish's 43 assessed water bodies are classified as impaired (36 impaired). The top reported causes are DISSOLVED OXYGEN, MERCURY - FISH CONSUMPTION ADVISORY, FECAL COLIFORM. Impairment means the water body fails to meet state quality standards for at least one designated use — drinking water source, recreation, aquatic life, or fish consumption. Note: watershed impairment doesn't always translate to tap-water issues; treatment plants can remove most regulated contaminants.
What's happening with rivers in St. Helena Parish right now?
St. Helena Parish's primary USGS streamgage on the Amite River has a pipeline snapshot of 1,020 cubic feet per second — 113% of the long-term mean of 899.45 cfs. Flow is within typical range for this gauge. For the latest gauge feed, visit waterdata.usgs.gov.
How does St. Helena Parish water compare to the Louisiana average?
St. Helena Parish's SDWIS water quality score of 23.8/100 is lower than the Louisiana state average of 30.1. The average water quality grade across Louisiana is F, based on data from 63 counties with available SDWIS data.
Is tap water safe to drink in St. Helena Parish?
Based on EPA SDWIS data, St. Helena Parish has a water quality grade of F (23.8/100). This indicates below-average compliance with significant violations. Residents may want to consider home water filtration or independent testing. The grade speaks to the public water system, not the watershed — for watershed-level concerns, see the Watershed Health zone. For the most up-to-date information, contact your local water utility or review your Consumer Confidence Report (CCR).
Why does St. Helena Parish have so many water violations?
St. Helena Parish has 10 health-based drinking water violations on record from the EPA SDWIS database. A higher violation count can result from aging infrastructure, underfunded water utilities, agricultural runoff contamination, or industrial pollution. Counties with more water systems may also see more violations simply due to scale. Residents concerned about water quality should consider independent water testing and home filtration systems.
How does St. Helena Parish rank for water quality in Louisiana?
St. Helena Parish ranks #29 out of 63 counties in Louisiana by SDWIS water quality score (1 = best). With a score of 23.8/100, it falls in the middle third of counties statewide. The ranking reflects EPA SDWIS compliance only — not watershed impairment, monitoring density, or streamflow, which are tracked separately on this page.

Counties with Similar Water Quality

Caddo Parish

Louisiana

F

23.8

Water score

St. Landry Parish

Louisiana

F

23.7

Water score

St. James Parish

Louisiana

F

23.4

Water score

Data Sources

Drinking-water compliance data from the EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) via the ECHO enforcement database. Scores reflect compliance history and health-based violation counts.

Watershed health and impaired-waterway data from the EPA ATTAINS Clean Water Act §303(d) assessments, state-reported and EPA-finalized.

Live streamflow from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS), continuous discharge measurements from the largest-drainage gauge in each county, compared against the full-record long-term annual mean.

Disclaimer: This data is informational only. It is not health, legal, or professional advice. For concerns about your specific water supply, contact your local water utility.

By Evan Brooks, Data EditorUpdated Reviewed by Evan Brooks, Data Editor

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