Bowlus, MN
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2 ppb (monitoring period 2021-2023). 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.
About Bowlus
Bowlus serves about 279 people through 111 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 Morrison County, Minnesota. EPA system ID: MN1490009; phone on file: 3204203203. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Bowlus's lead record
Against the period ending 2021 (1 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Bowlus is 2 ppb across 2 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 2 ppb |
| 2021 | 1 ppb |
How Bowlus compares
Of the 966 Minnesota systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 7 are over 15 ppb right now and 48 have gone over at some point. Bowlus's 2 ppb sits at the 68th percentile in Minnesota and the 71st nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Morrison County
8 other systems share Morrison County; 3 of them have a higher latest lead result than Bowlus. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Little Falls | 9,069 | 5 ppb |
| Rich Prairie Sewer And Water District | 1,531 | 7 ppb |
| Royalton | 1,266 | 4 ppb |
| Motley | 682 | 2 ppb |
| Randall | 608 | 0 (not detected) |
| Upsala | 482 | 0 (not detected) |
| Swanville | 333 | 0 (not detected) |
| Buckman | 309 | 0 (not detected) |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Bowlus, MN 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 Bowlus 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.