Gilmore City Waterworks, IA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 4.8 ppb (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. 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
Gilmore City Waterworks serves about 487 people through 265 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 Pocahontas County, Iowa. EPA system ID: IA7607088; phone on file: 515-373-6326. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2021 (5.5 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Gilmore City Waterworks is 5.5 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 4.8 ppb |
| 2021 | 5.5 ppb |
| 2018 | 4 ppb |
How Gilmore City Waterworks compares
Of the 1,066 Iowa systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 4 are over 15 ppb right now and 36 have gone over at some point. Gilmore City Waterworks's 4.8 ppb sits at the 87th percentile in Iowa and the 90th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
8 other systems share Pocahontas County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Gilmore City Waterworks. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Pocahontas Water Department | 1,877 | 1.1 ppb |
| Laurens Water Supply | 1,301 | 0 (not detected) |
| Fonda Water Supply | 636 | 3.4 ppb |
| Rolfe Water Supply | 509 | 1.5 ppb |
| Palmer Water Supply | 138 | 0 (not detected) |
| Havelock Water Supply | 130 | 0 (not detected) |
| Varina Water Supply | 68 | 0 (not detected) |
| Plover Water Supply | 50 | 2 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Gilmore City, IA 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 Gilmore City 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.