Birch Tree Pws, MO
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.74 ppb (monitoring period 2024-2026). 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.
Birch Tree Pws at a glance
Birch Tree Pws serves about 679 people through 272 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 Shannon County, Missouri. EPA system ID: MO4010072; phone on file: 573-292-3414. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Every lead result on file
That is down 1.51 ppb from 3.25 ppb in the period ending 2023. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Birch Tree Pws is 4.55 ppb across 7 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 1.74 ppb |
| 2023 | 3.25 ppb |
| 2022 | 1.19 ppb |
| 2020 | 1.19 ppb |
| 2019 | 2.68 ppb |
| 2017 | 2.68 ppb |
| 2016 | 4.55 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 1,674 Missouri systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.04 ppb; 2 are over 15 ppb right now and 74 have gone over at some point. Birch Tree Pws's 1.74 ppb sits at the 66th percentile in Missouri and the 67th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Shannon County
2 other systems share Shannon County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Birch Tree Pws. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Winona Pws | 1,315 | 3.37 ppb |
| Eminence Pws | 700 | 1.54 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Birch Tree, MO 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 Birch Tree Pws 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. Size matters more than most people expect: small vs large water systems.