Columbus, MN
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2023-2023). 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.
About Columbus
Columbus serves about 140 people through 80 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 Anoka County, Minnesota. EPA system ID: MN1020043; phone on file: 6514199010. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2022 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Columbus is 12 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb (1 over 10 ppb).
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2021 | 12 ppb over 10 |
Against other Minnesota systems
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. Columbus's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 15th percentile in Minnesota and the 12th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Nearby utilities
29 other systems share Anoka County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than Columbus. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Blaine | 70,220 | 0 (not detected) |
| Coon Rapids | 63,599 | 0 (not detected) |
| Fridley | 27,476 | 0 (not detected) |
| Columbia Heights | 22,278 | 0 (not detected) |
| Andover | 21,455 | 0 (not detected) |
| Lino Lakes | 18,608 | 2 ppb |
| Anoka | 17,798 | 2 ppb |
| Ramsey | 17,705 | 0 (not detected) |
| Spring Lake Park | 7,200 | 2 ppb |
| Saint Francis | 5,200 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Look up your address in Columbus'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 Columbus whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 1445 ppb (copper action level 1,300 ppb).
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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.