Hardee Correctional Institute, FL
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.5 ppb (monitoring period 2021-2021). 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
Hardee Correctional Institute serves about 1,900 people through 1 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by the state and draws groundwater, in Hardee County, Florida. EPA system ID: FL6254754; phone on file: 850-717-3926. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
That is up 2.5 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2018. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Hardee Correctional Institute is 2.5 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 2.5 ppb |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 0.3 ppb |
How Hardee Correctional Institute compares
Of the 1,481 Florida systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 3 are over 15 ppb right now and 85 have gone over at some point. Hardee Correctional Institute's 2.5 ppb sits at the 78th percentile in Florida and the 78th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
8 other systems share Hardee County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Hardee Correctional Institute. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Wauchula City Water Department | 5,000 | 1 ppb |
| Wauchula Hills Wtp (Hardee County) | 3,038 | 0 (not detected) |
| Bowling Green, City Of | 2,940 | 0.2 ppb |
| Zolfo Springs Wtp | 2,062 | 0.5 ppb |
| Brookside Bluff Rv Park | 300 | 1 ppb |
| Peace River Heights | 250 | 0 (not detected) |
| Charlie Creek-The Village Of | 142 | 0.7 ppb |
| Lakeside Neurologic (Fka F.I.N.R.) | 60 | 1.4 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Tallahassee, FL 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 Hardee Correctional Institute 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.