Black Bear Farms, MI
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 3 ppb (monitoring period 2023-2023). 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.
Black Bear Farms at a glance
Black Bear Farms serves about 110 people through 91 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws surface water, in Grand Traverse County, Michigan. EPA system ID: MI0000733; phone on file: 231-946-6014. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2022 (2 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Black Bear Farms is 3 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 3 ppb |
| 2022 | 2 ppb |
| 2019 | 1 ppb |
How Black Bear Farms compares
Of the 1,227 Michigan systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 31 are over 15 ppb right now and 109 have gone over at some point. Black Bear Farms's 3 ppb sits at the 75th percentile in Michigan and the 81st nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
20 other systems share Grand Traverse County; 2 of them have a higher latest lead result than Black Bear Farms. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Traverse City | 14,532 | 4 ppb |
| Garfield Charter Township | 12,899 | 2 ppb |
| East Bay Charter Township | 3,720 | 0 (not detected) |
| Blair Township | 2,788 | 3 ppb |
| Peninsula Township | 1,790 | 0 (not detected) |
| Kingsley, Village Of | 1,657 | - |
| Kings Court Mobile Home Park | 1,200 | 0 (not detected) |
| Interlochen Center For The Arts | 750 | 11 ppb |
| Edge 72 | 288 | 3 ppb |
| Acme Township - Hope Village | 128 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Traverse City, MI 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 Black Bear Farms 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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.