Garden City Water Department, AL
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 4.7 ppb (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. 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.
Who runs the water here
Garden City Water Department serves about 798 people through 266 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Cullman County, Alabama. EPA system ID: AL0000404; phone on file: 256-352-5408. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Every lead result on file
That is up 3.64 ppb from 1.06 ppb in the period ending 2023. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Garden City Water Department is 4.7 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 4.7 ppb |
| 2023 | 1.06 ppb |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 1.65 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 542 Alabama systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 1 are over 15 ppb right now and 11 have gone over at some point. Garden City Water Department's 4.7 ppb sits at the 96th percentile in Alabama and the 90th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Cullman County
9 other systems share Cullman County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Garden City Water Department. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Cullman County Water Department | 57,006 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cullman, City Of | 36,741 | 0 (not detected) |
| V.A.W. Water System, Inc | 17,466 | 0 (not detected) |
| East Cullman Water System | 13,284 | 0.91 ppb |
| Hanceville, The Ww & Sb Of The City Of | 6,042 | 1.29 ppb |
| Joppa Hulaco & Ryan Water Authority | 5,220 | 0 (not detected) |
| Johnsons Crossing Water System | 3,570 | 2.9 ppb |
| Walter Water Authority | 1,317 | 0.89 ppb |
| Cullman, The Utilities Board Of The City | 32 | 1.3 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Garden City, AL 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 Garden City Water Department 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.