Colwell, City Of, IA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.46 ppb (monitoring period 2026-2026). 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 Colwell, City Of
Colwell, City Of serves about 55 people through 38 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 Floyd County, Iowa. EPA system ID: IA3409066; phone on file: 641-364-4795. 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 2025 (3.2 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Colwell, City Of is 3.5 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 2.46 ppb |
| 2025 | 3.2 ppb |
| 2022 | 3.5 ppb |
| 2019 | 3 ppb |
| 2016 | 2 ppb |
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. Colwell, City Of's 2.46 ppb sits at the 71st percentile in Iowa and the 77th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
6 other systems share Floyd County; 3 of them have a higher latest lead result than Colwell, City Of. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Charles City Water Supply | 7,446 | 6.2 ppb |
| Nora Springs Water Supply | 1,369 | 6 ppb |
| Rockford Water Supply | 762 | 2 ppb |
| Rudd Waterworks | 358 | 1.4 ppb |
| Floyd Muni Water Supply | 313 | 10 ppb |
| Marble Rock Water Supply | 272 | 2 ppb |
Next steps for Alta Vista, IA
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Alta Vista, 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 Colwell, City Of 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.