Cedar Rapids Water Department, IA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.62 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.
About Cedar Rapids Water Department
Cedar Rapids Water Department serves about 142,364 people through 54,796 service connections, which makes it a very large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Linn County, Iowa. EPA system ID: IA5715093; phone on file: 319-286-5973. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2024 (2.6 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Cedar Rapids Water Department is 10.5 ppb across 11 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb (2 over 10 ppb).
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.62 ppb |
| 2024 | 2.6 ppb |
| 2023 | 5.62 ppb |
| 2022 | 2.75 ppb |
| 2021 | 1.91 ppb |
| 2020 | 3.7 ppb |
| 2019 | 3.4 ppb |
| 2018 | 1.7 ppb |
| 2018 | 10.5 ppb over 10 |
| 2017 | 2.9 ppb |
| 2016 | 10.5 ppb over 10 |
Where this result ranks
Of the 1,066 Iowa systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 4 are over 15 ppb right now and 36 have gone over at some point. Cedar Rapids Water Department's 1.62 ppb sits at the 54th percentile in Iowa and the 65th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
39 other systems share Linn County; 21 of them have a higher latest lead result than Cedar Rapids Water Department. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Marion Municipal Water Dept | 41,623 | 8.3 ppb |
| Hiawatha Water Dept | 7,183 | 0 (not detected) |
| Mount Vernon Water Supply | 4,527 | 1 ppb |
| Fairfax Water Supply | 2,828 | 2 ppb |
| Center Point Water Supply | 2,579 | 0 (not detected) |
| Ely Water Supply | 2,328 | 4 ppb |
| Lisbon Water Supply | 2,233 | 1.7 ppb |
| Palo Water Supply | 1,407 | 1.6 ppb |
| Central City Water Supply | 1,264 | 3 ppb |
| Springville Water Supply | 1,164 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Cedar Rapids, IA
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Cedar Rapids, IA 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 Cedar Rapids Water Department 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.