Dowagiac, MI
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 6 ppb (monitoring period 2026-2026). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. The latest result is under the action level, but this system has gone over 15 ppb before. Lead comes from pipes, not the source water, so a home with a lead service line can still be exposed. Test your own tap.
About Dowagiac
Dowagiac serves about 6,350 people through 2,246 service connections, which makes it a medium-sized system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Cass County, Michigan. EPA system ID: MI0001860; phone on file: 269-782-2195. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Every lead result on file
That is down 6 ppb from 12 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Dowagiac is 18 ppb across 13 monitoring periods, 2 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 6 ppb |
| 2025 | 12 ppb over 10 |
| 2025 | 6.9 ppb |
| 2024 | 14 ppb over 10 |
| 2024 | 18 ppb over 15 |
| 2023 | 11 ppb over 10 |
| 2022 | 17 ppb over 15 |
| 2021 | 13 ppb over 10 |
| 2020 | 4 ppb |
| 2019 | 8 ppb |
| 2018 | 6 ppb |
| 2017 | 7 ppb |
| 2017 | 4 ppb |
Against other Michigan systems
Of the 1,227 Michigan systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 31 are over 15 ppb right now and 109 have gone over at some point. Dowagiac's 6 ppb sits at the 91st percentile in Michigan and the 93rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Cass County
15 other systems share Cass County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Dowagiac. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Cassopolis | 1,815 | - |
| Cass County Water System | 1,350 | 0 (not detected) |
| Edwardsburg | 1,260 | 3.4 ppb |
| Marcellus | 1,198 | 3.9 ppb |
| Bair Lake Bible Camp | 372 | 0 (not detected) |
| Colonial Acres | 265 | 1 ppb |
| Eagle Lake Estates Mhp | 230 | 3.6 ppb |
| Linden Mobile Home Park | 92 | 0 (not detected) |
| White Pines Mobile Home Park | 90 | 0 (not detected) |
| Colony Bay Condominiums | 75 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Dowagiac, MI 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 Dowagiac 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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. More in what a past exceedance means today.