Black Rascal Water Company, CA
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2026-2026). 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
Black Rascal Water Company serves about 367 people through 131 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Merced County, California. EPA system ID: CA2400046; phone on file: 209-993-7199. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Every lead result on file
That is down 32 ppb from 32 ppb in the period ending 2024. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Black Rascal Water Company is 32 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2024 | 32 ppb over 15 |
| 2021 | 7.2 ppb |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
Against other California systems
Of the 2,884 California systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 30 are over 15 ppb right now and 215 have gone over at some point. Black Rascal Water Company's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 34th percentile in California and the 20th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Neighbouring systems
21 other systems share Merced County; 4 of them have a higher latest lead result than Black Rascal Water Company. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| City Of Merced | 96,073 | 0 (not detected) |
| City Of Los Banos | 48,896 | 0 (not detected) |
| City Of Atwater | 29,479 | 0 (not detected) |
| City Of Livingston | 14,894 | 0 (not detected) |
| Winton Water & Sanitary Dist | 9,745 | 0 (not detected) |
| Delhi Cwd | 7,784 | 0 (not detected) |
| City Of Dos Palos | 7,452 | 0.56 ppb |
| City Of Gustine | 6,138 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cal Am - Meadowbrook | 5,723 | 6 ppb |
| Hilmar County Water District | 5,504 | 0 (not detected) |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Merced, CA 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 Rascal Water Company 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. Why an old exceedance still matters: over the limit before, under it now.