Fairchild Waterworks, WI
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 5.58 ppb (monitoring period 2023-2023). 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.
Who runs the water here
Fairchild Waterworks serves about 451 people through 217 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 Eau Claire County, Wisconsin. EPA system ID: WI6180295. Ask the utility on your bill for your address in their service line inventory.
Fairchild Waterworks's lead record
That is up 5.58 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2020. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Fairchild Waterworks is 16 ppb across 6 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 5.58 ppb |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 1.6 ppb |
| 2018 | 1.2 ppb |
| 2018 | 1.8 ppb |
| 2017 | 16 ppb over 15 |
Against other Wisconsin systems
Of the 947 Wisconsin systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.33 ppb; 6 are over 15 ppb right now and 71 have gone over at some point. Fairchild Waterworks's 5.58 ppb sits at the 90th percentile in Wisconsin and the 92nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
11 other systems share Eau Claire County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Fairchild Waterworks. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Eau Claire Waterworks | 70,587 | 2 ppb |
| Altoona Waterworks | 9,627 | 0.99 ppb |
| Augusta Waterworks | 1,450 | 0 (not detected) |
| Fall Creek Waterworks | 1,269 | 2.06 ppb |
| Hillcrest Estates Mhp | 850 | 1.6 ppb |
| Villa Diann Mhp | 420 | 7.3 ppb |
| Priory The | 185 | 0.85 ppb |
| Bonnie Vale Park 1 | 70 | 2.1 ppb |
| Berghs Mobile Home Park | 60 | 0 (not detected) |
| Bonnie Vale Park 2 | 51 | 3.35 ppb |
Next steps for Fairchild, WI
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Fairchild, WI 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 Fairchild Waterworks 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. Why an old exceedance still matters: over the limit before, under it now.