Artesia Municipal Water System, NM
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.4 ppb (monitoring period 2023-2025). 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.
About Artesia Municipal Water System
Artesia Municipal Water System serves about 15,176 people through 5,600 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 Eddy County, New Mexico. EPA system ID: NM3520308; phone on file: 575-746-9821. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2022 (2.4 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Artesia Municipal Water System is 2.9 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.4 ppb |
| 2022 | 2.4 ppb |
| 2019 | 2.9 ppb |
| 2018 | 2.6 ppb |
How Artesia Municipal Water System compares
Of the 504 New Mexico systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 14 are over 15 ppb right now and 46 have gone over at some point. Artesia Municipal Water System's 1.4 ppb sits at the 52nd percentile in New Mexico and the 62nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
13 other systems share Eddy County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than Artesia Municipal Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Carlsbad Municipal Water System | 33,626 | 0.73 ppb |
| Otis Mdwca | 4,464 | 3 ppb |
| Artesia Rural Water Cooperative | 1,950 | 0.99 ppb |
| Loving Water System | 1,862 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cottonwood Water Mdwca | 1,781 | 2 ppb |
| Malaga Mdwc Swa | 868 | 1 ppb |
| Happy Valley Cooperative Water Works | 638 | 2.6 ppb |
| Morningside Water Users Cooperative | 348 | - |
| Hope Water System | 245 | 0 (not detected) |
| Riverside Mdwa | 227 | 17.9 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Artesia, NM 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 Artesia Municipal Water System 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. What a 90th-percentile result does and does not tell you: how to read a lead result. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.