Camden, MI
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1 ppb (monitoring period 2022-2024). 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
Camden serves about 512 people through 225 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 Hillsdale County, Michigan. EPA system ID: MI0001050; phone on file: 517-425-5191. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Every lead result on file
The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Camden is 1 ppb across 1 monitoring period, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 ppb |
Where this result ranks
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. Camden's 1 ppb sits at the 47th percentile in Michigan and the 53rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
11 other systems share Hillsdale County; 4 of them have a higher latest lead result than Camden. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Hillsdale | 8,163 | 2 ppb |
| Jonesville | 2,258 | 3 ppb |
| Litchfield | 1,310 | 0 (not detected) |
| Reading | 1,078 | 2.5 ppb |
| Michindoh Conference Center | 779 | - |
| Waldron | 538 | 0 (not detected) |
| Somerset Centre Estates | 368 | 0 (not detected) |
| State Road Country Living Mhc | 73 | 1 ppb |
| Creekside Mhc | 70 | 0 (not detected) |
| Hillside Acres | 48 | 3 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Camden, 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 Camden 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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.