Highway 98 East Water Assn., MS
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.5 ppb (monitoring period 2021-2023). 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
Highway 98 East Water Assn. serves about 1,632 people through 616 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is under mixed public and private ownership and draws groundwater, in Marion County, Mississippi. EPA system ID: MS0460007; phone on file: 601-736-9631. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Highway 98 East Water Assn.'s lead record
Against the period ending 2020 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Highway 98 East Water Assn. is 0.5 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 0.5 ppb |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 0 (not detected) |
Against other Mississippi systems
Of the 973 Mississippi systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 9 are over 15 ppb right now and 44 have gone over at some point. Highway 98 East Water Assn.'s 0.5 ppb sits at the 22nd percentile in Mississippi and the 43rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
10 other systems share Marion County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than Highway 98 East Water Assn.. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| City Of Columbia | 5,900 | 1.7 ppb |
| Hub Water Association | 3,260 | 0.5 ppb |
| Bunker Hill Water Association | 2,700 | 5.1 ppb |
| Mt Gilead-Improve Water Assn | 2,416 | 0 (not detected) |
| Kokomo-Shiloh Water Assn. | 2,344 | 0.5 ppb |
| Lampton Water Association | 1,983 | 0.5 ppb |
| West Marion Water Association | 1,571 | 0.5 ppb |
| Foxworth Water & Sewerage Assn | 710 | 1.8 ppb |
| Community Water Association | 320 | 1.5 ppb |
| Morgantown Water Association | 224 | 3.7 ppb |
Next steps for Columbia, MS
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Columbia, MS 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 Highway 98 East Water Assn. 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.