Dexter, City Of, KS
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.8 ppb (monitoring period 2022-2024). 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 Dexter, City Of
Dexter, City Of serves about 226 people through 151 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 surface water, in Cowley County, Kansas. EPA system ID: KS2003501; phone on file: 620-876-5569. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Dexter, City Of's lead record
That is down 1.1 ppb from 2.9 ppb in the period ending 2021. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Dexter, City Of is 6.8 ppb across 10 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 1.8 ppb |
| 2021 | 2.9 ppb |
| 2020 | 1.5 ppb |
| 2020 | 6.8 ppb |
| 2019 | 1 ppb |
| 2019 | 2.7 ppb |
| 2019 | 2 ppb |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 2.7 ppb |
| 2016 | 2.2 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 832 Kansas systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 2 are over 15 ppb right now and 35 have gone over at some point. Dexter, City Of's 1.8 ppb sits at the 58th percentile in Kansas and the 67th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
14 other systems share Cowley County; 3 of them have a higher latest lead result than Dexter, City Of. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Arkansas City, City Of | 11,929 | 1.1 ppb |
| Winfield, City Of | 11,726 | 3.2 ppb |
| Cowley Co Rwd 3 | 2,500 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cowley Co Rwd 5 | 2,000 | 2 ppb |
| Cowley Co Rwd 1 | 1,500 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cowley Co Rwd 6 | 792 | 1.6 ppb |
| Udall, City Of | 658 | 1.8 ppb |
| Cowley Co Rwd 2 | 600 | 0 (not detected) |
| Burden, City Of | 514 | 1.8 ppb |
| Cowley Co Rwd 4 | 500 | 1.1 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Dexter, KS 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 Dexter, City Of whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 1950 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. 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.