Carbonado Water Dept, WA
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2023-2025). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. The latest 90th-percentile result was reported as 0 (not detected at the lab's limit). That says the sampled homes were low, not that your home has no lead service line. Check your utility's service line inventory for your address.
Who runs the water here
Carbonado Water Dept serves about 875 people through 269 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 surface water, in Pierce County, Washington. EPA system ID: WA5311100. Ask the utility on your bill for your address in their service line inventory.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2022 (1 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Carbonado Water Dept is 5.3 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 1 ppb |
| 2019 | 5.3 ppb |
| 2016 | 2 ppb |
How Carbonado Water Dept compares
Of the 2,218 Washington systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 18 are over 15 ppb right now and 62 have gone over at some point. Carbonado Water Dept's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 30th percentile in Washington and the 26th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Neighbouring systems
226 other systems share Pierce County; 151 of them have a higher latest lead result than Carbonado Water Dept. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Tacoma Water Division City Of | 446,245 | 0 (not detected) |
| Puyallup City Of | 94,520 | 2.7 ppb |
| Lakewood Water District | 82,425 | 1.1 ppb |
| Southwood | 64,155 | 1.6 ppb |
| Bonney Lake Water Department City | 43,371 | 2.4 ppb |
| Firgrove Mutual Inc | 36,168 | 2.9 ppb |
| Jblm Lewis | 35,414 | 0 (not detected) |
| Spanaway Water Company | 34,506 | 2.4 ppb |
| Parkland Light & Water Company | 33,775 | 2.4 ppb |
| Fife Dept Of Public Works | 29,091 | 2 ppb |
Next steps for Carbonado, WA
Look up your address in Carbonado Water Dept's service line inventory. If it says lead, galvanized or unknown, test your tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Carbonado Water Dept 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. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.