Dawson Water Works, IA
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (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. 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 Dawson Water Works
Dawson Water Works serves about 116 people through 81 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 Dallas County, Iowa. EPA system ID: IA2525010; phone on file: 515-979-6728. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Dawson Water Works's lead record
That is down 9 ppb from 9 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Dawson Water Works is 9 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2025 | 9 ppb |
| 2024 | 8 ppb |
| 2021 | 2.6 ppb |
| 2018 | 5.2 ppb |
Against other Iowa systems
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. Dawson Water Works's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 6th percentile in Iowa and the 11th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Other water systems in Dallas County
18 other systems share Dallas County; 7 of them have a higher latest lead result than Dawson Water Works. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Waukee Water Supply | 31,823 | 0 (not detected) |
| Xenia Rwd (Des Moines) | 12,860 | 1.74 ppb |
| Perry Municipal Water Works | 7,836 | 1 ppb |
| Adel Municipal Water Works | 6,461 | 0 (not detected) |
| Xenia Rwd (Woodward) | 3,465 | 0.7 ppb |
| Dallas Center Water Supply | 1,901 | 0 (not detected) |
| Granger Muni Water Supply | 1,654 | 0 (not detected) |
| Woodward Water Supply | 1,346 | 4 ppb |
| Van Meter Municipal Water Work | 1,074 | 0 (not detected) |
| De Soto Water Supply | 960 | 0.5 ppb |
Next steps for Dawson, IA
Look up your address in Dawson Water Works'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 Dawson Water Works whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 1500 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.