Columbus Municipal Utility, IN
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.74 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 Columbus Municipal Utility
Columbus Municipal Utility serves about 51,122 people through 29,449 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Bartholomew County, Indiana. EPA system ID: IN5203002; phone on file: 812-418-6429. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Columbus Municipal Utility's lead record
Against the period ending 2024 (2.08 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Columbus Municipal Utility is 4.6 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2.74 ppb |
| 2024 | 2.08 ppb |
| 2021 | 3.59 ppb |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 4.6 ppb |
How Columbus Municipal Utility compares
Of the 687 Indiana systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.31 ppb; 6 are over 15 ppb right now and 36 have gone over at some point. Columbus Municipal Utility's 2.74 ppb sits at the 77th percentile in Indiana and the 79th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
4 other systems share Bartholomew County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Columbus Municipal Utility. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Eastern Bartholomew Water | 13,547 | 1.55 ppb |
| Southwestern Bartholomew Water Corp. | 8,652 | 1.43 ppb |
| Hope Water Department | 2,113 | 4.26 ppb |
| Davis Mobile Home Park | 35 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Columbus, IN 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 Columbus Municipal Utility 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. Size matters more than most people expect: small vs large water systems.