Heron Lake, MN
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2 ppb (monitoring period 2025-2025). 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.
About Heron Lake
Heron Lake serves about 691 people through 296 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 Jackson County, Minnesota. EPA system ID: MN1320002; phone on file: 5077932826. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2021 (2 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Heron Lake is 2 ppb across 2 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2 ppb |
| 2021 | 2 ppb |
How Heron Lake compares
Of the 966 Minnesota systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 7 are over 15 ppb right now and 48 have gone over at some point. Heron Lake's 2 ppb sits at the 71st percentile in Minnesota and the 71st nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
5 other systems share Jackson County; 2 of them have a higher latest lead result than Heron Lake. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Jackson | 3,323 | 11 ppb |
| Lakefield | 1,694 | 0 (not detected) |
| Okabena | 188 | 3 ppb |
| Alpha | 112 | 0 (not detected) |
| Wilder | 60 | 2 ppb |
Next steps for Heron Lake, MN
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Heron Lake, MN 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 Heron Lake 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. The lead result guide covers how utilities pick the homes they sample. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.