Cunningham Water District, KY
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 4.4 ppb (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. 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.
Who runs the water here
Cunningham Water District serves about 475 people through 160 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 Carlisle County, Kentucky. EPA system ID: KY0200095; phone on file: 270-642-2287. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Cunningham Water District's lead record
Against the period ending 2022 (4.6 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Cunningham Water District is 7.1 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 4.4 ppb |
| 2022 | 4.6 ppb |
| 2019 | 5.1 ppb |
| 2016 | 7.1 ppb |
Against other Kentucky systems
Of the 367 Kentucky systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 0 are over 15 ppb right now and 4 have gone over at some point. Cunningham Water District's 4.4 ppb sits at the 92nd percentile in Kentucky and the 89th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
3 other systems share Carlisle County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Cunningham Water District. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Bardwell City Utilities | 1,227 | 0 (not detected) |
| Milburn Water District | 500 | 2.3 ppb |
| Arlington Water Department | 301 | 3.14 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Cunningham, KY 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 Cunningham Water District 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.