Alden, MN
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 7 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. The latest result is under the action level, but this system has gone over 15 ppb before. Lead comes from pipes, not the source water, so a home with a lead service line can still be exposed. Test your own tap.
Who runs the water here
Alden serves about 661 people through 320 service connections, which makes it a small 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: MN1240004; phone on file: 5078743620. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Every lead result on file
That is down 5 ppb from 12 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Alden is 19 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 ppb |
| 2025 | 12 ppb over 10 |
| 2024 | 19 ppb over 15 |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
Where this result ranks
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. Alden's 7 ppb sits at the 95th percentile in Minnesota and the 95th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
15 other systems share Freeborn County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Alden. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Albert Lea | 18,492 | 2 ppb |
| Clarks Grove | 695 | 0 (not detected) |
| 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 |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Alden, 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 Alden 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. The lead result guide covers how utilities pick the homes they sample. More in what a past exceedance means today.