Blackwater Pws, MO
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.86 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. 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.
Who runs the water here
Blackwater Pws serves about 181 people through 98 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Cooper County, Missouri. EPA system ID: MO3010075; phone on file: 660-846-4411. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Lead results over time
That is down 2.51 ppb from 3.37 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Blackwater Pws is 10.5 ppb across 10 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb (4 over 10 ppb).
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0.86 ppb |
| 2022 | 3.37 ppb |
| 2021 | 3.37 ppb |
| 2021 | 3.37 ppb |
| 2021 | 3.37 ppb |
| 2019 | 10.5 ppb over 10 |
| 2018 | 10.5 ppb over 10 |
| 2018 | 10.5 ppb over 10 |
| 2018 | 10.5 ppb over 10 |
| 2016 | 1.77 ppb |
Against other Missouri systems
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. Blackwater Pws's 0.86 ppb sits at the 47th percentile in Missouri and the 48th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
7 other systems share Cooper County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than Blackwater Pws. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Boonville Pws | 7,964 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cooper County Consolidated Pwsd # 1 | 2,451 | 1.76 ppb |
| Pilot Grove Pws | 768 | 1.09 ppb |
| Cooper County Pwsd 1 | 562 | 1.3 ppb |
| Otterville Pws | 450 | 0.64 ppb |
| Bunceton Pws | 337 | 1.72 ppb |
| Prairie Home Pws | 280 | 2.08 ppb |
Next steps for Blackwater, MO
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Blackwater, 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 Blackwater 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.