Garfield Water Department, WA
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (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. The latest 90th-percentile result was reported as 0 (not detected at the lab's limit). That says the sampled homes were low, not that your home has no lead service line. Check your utility's service line inventory for your address.
Who runs the water here
Garfield Water Department serves about 694 people through 309 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 groundwater, in Whitman County, Washington. EPA system ID: WA5327200. Ask the utility on your bill for your address in their service line inventory.
Garfield Water Department's lead record
That is down 1.7 ppb from 1.7 ppb in the period ending 2017. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Garfield Water Department is 1.7 ppb across 2 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 1.7 ppb |
How Garfield Water Department compares
Of the 2,218 Washington systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 18 are over 15 ppb right now and 62 have gone over at some point. Garfield Water Department's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 29th percentile in Washington and the 24th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Neighbouring systems
18 other systems share Whitman County; 16 of them have a higher latest lead result than Garfield Water Department. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Pullman Water Department City Of | 31,315 | 2.1 ppb |
| Washington State University | 21,506 | 4.9 ppb |
| Colfax Water Department City Of | 3,507 | 3.8 ppb |
| Palouse Water Dept City Of | 1,298 | 3.2 ppb |
| Tekoa City Of | 1,076 | 1.4 ppb |
| Rosalia Town Of | 831 | 3.8 ppb |
| St John Town Of | 800 | 2.2 ppb |
| Colton Water Department | 632 | 4.1 ppb |
| Albion Water Dept | 600 | 0 (not detected) |
| Oakesdale Town Of | 492 | 1.3 ppb |
Next steps for Tekoa, WA
Look up your address in Garfield Water Department's service line inventory. If it says lead, galvanized or unknown, test your tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Garfield 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. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.