Deer Creek, MN
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2024-2026). 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.
Deer Creek at a glance
Deer Creek serves about 329 people through 116 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 Otter Tail County, Minnesota. EPA system ID: MN1560007; phone on file: 2184622001. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2023 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Deer Creek is 0 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 0 (not detected) |
How Deer Creek compares
Of the 966 Minnesota systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 7 are over 15 ppb right now and 48 have gone over at some point. Deer Creek's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 23rd percentile in Minnesota and the 19th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Neighbouring systems
15 other systems share Otter Tail County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than Deer Creek. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Fergus Falls | 14,194 | 8 ppb |
| Perham | 3,421 | 3 ppb |
| Pelican Rapids | 2,577 | 7 ppb |
| New York Mills | 1,287 | 0 (not detected) |
| Parkers Prairie | 1,023 | 0 (not detected) |
| Battle Lake | 918 | 2 ppb |
| Henning | 851 | 0 (not detected) |
| Ottertail | 694 | 0 (not detected) |
| Underwood | 380 | 0 (not detected) |
| Vergas | 358 | 5 ppb |
Your move
Look up your address in Deer Creek'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 Deer Creek 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. A zero today does not rule out a jump later - the rules are tightening in 2027.