Gardner Community Water System, LA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2 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
Gardner Community Water System serves about 4,566 people through 1,522 service connections, which makes it a medium-sized system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Rapides Parish County, Louisiana. EPA system ID: LA1079010; phone on file: 318-793-4568. 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 up 2 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2023. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Gardner Community Water System is 3 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 ppb |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 1 ppb |
| 2017 | 3 ppb |
How Gardner Community Water System compares
Of the 802 Louisiana systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0.72 ppb; 4 are over 15 ppb right now and 30 have gone over at some point. Gardner Community Water System's 2 ppb sits at the 80th percentile in Louisiana and the 72nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
21 other systems share Rapides Parish County; 6 of them have a higher latest lead result than Gardner Community Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| City Of Alexandria Water System | 66,798 | 2 ppb |
| City Of Pineville Water System | 20,358 | 2 ppb |
| Rapides Parish Waterworks District 3 | 19,983 | 0 (not detected) |
| Buckeye Water District 50 | 12,078 | 2 ppb |
| Rapides Island Water Association Inc | 5,658 | 0 (not detected) |
| Kolin Ruby Wise Waterwork District 11 A | 4,992 | 0 (not detected) |
| Town Of Woodworth Water System | 4,818 | 2.2 ppb |
| Village Of Forest Hill | 3,600 | 0 (not detected) |
| Lena Water System Inc | 3,417 | 3 ppb |
| Emc Water System Inc | 3,135 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Boyce, LA
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Boyce, LA 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 Gardner Community Water System 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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.