Albert Lea, MN
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2 ppb (monitoring period 2025-2025). 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.
Albert Lea at a glance
Albert Lea serves about 18,492 people through 7,116 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Freeborn County, Minnesota. EPA system ID: MN1240001; phone on file: 5073774335. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Albert Lea's lead record
Against the period ending 2024 (3 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Albert Lea is 4 ppb across 12 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2 ppb |
| 2024 | 3 ppb |
| 2023 | 1 ppb |
| 2022 | 2 ppb |
| 2022 | 2 ppb |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2021 | 1 ppb |
| 2020 | 2 ppb |
| 2019 | 4 ppb |
| 2018 | 2 ppb |
| 2017 | 2 ppb |
| 2016 | 3 ppb |
Against other Minnesota systems
Of the 966 Minnesota systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 7 are over 15 ppb right now and 48 have gone over at some point. Albert Lea's 2 ppb sits at the 76th percentile in Minnesota and the 73rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
15 other systems share Freeborn County; 3 of them have a higher latest lead result than Albert Lea. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Clarks Grove | 695 | 0 (not detected) |
| Alden | 661 | 7 ppb |
| Glenville | 566 | 0 (not detected) |
| Geneva | 538 | 0 (not detected) |
| Emmons | 384 | 1 ppb |
| Hartland | 321 | 3 ppb |
| Hollandale | 294 | 0 (not detected) |
| Freeborn | 259 | 2 ppb |
| Perennia Senior Living - Albert Lea | 256 | - |
| Hayward | 254 | 1 ppb |
Next steps for Albert Lea, MN
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Albert Lea, MN 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 Albert Lea whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 1810 ppb (copper action level 1,300 ppb).
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. The lead result guide covers how utilities pick the homes they sample. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.