Cwsc Salinas, CA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.2 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
Cwsc Salinas serves about 114,286 people through 24,045 service connections, which makes it a very large system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Monterey County, California. EPA system ID: CA2710010; phone on file: 408-367-8593. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Cwsc Salinas's lead record
Against the period ending 2022 (1.1 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Cwsc Salinas is 1.2 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.2 ppb |
| 2022 | 1.1 ppb |
| 2022 | 1.1 ppb |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 0 (not detected) |
Against other California systems
Of the 2,884 California systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 30 are over 15 ppb right now and 215 have gone over at some point. Cwsc Salinas's 1.2 ppb sits at the 73rd percentile in California and the 59th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
155 other systems share Monterey County; 67 of them have a higher latest lead result than Cwsc Salinas. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Cal Am Water Company - Monterey | 128,928 | 1 ppb |
| Alco Water Service | 56,253 | 0 (not detected) |
| Marina Coast Water District | 38,918 | 0 (not detected) |
| Soledad, City Of | 19,732 | 0 (not detected) |
| Greenfield, City Of | 18,967 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cwsc King City | 14,046 | 0 (not detected) |
| Gonzales, City Of | 8,333 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cwsc Salinas Hills | 7,733 | 0.9 ppb |
| Castroville Community Services District | 7,515 | 0 (not detected) |
| Correctional Training Facility - Soledad | 4,357 | 3.9 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; San Jose, CA 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 Cwsc Salinas 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.