Howard, City Of, KS
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 6.1 ppb (monitoring period 2023-2025). 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.
Howard, City Of at a glance
Howard, City Of serves about 583 people through 454 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 surface water, in Elk County, Kansas. EPA system ID: KS2004901; phone on file: 620-374-2202. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Howard, City Of's lead record
That is down 1.6 ppb from 7.7 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Howard, City Of is 7.7 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 6.1 ppb |
| 2022 | 7.7 ppb |
| 2019 | 4.5 ppb |
| 2016 | 6.1 ppb |
Against other Kansas systems
Of the 832 Kansas systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 2 are over 15 ppb right now and 35 have gone over at some point. Howard, City Of's 6.1 ppb sits at the 94th percentile in Kansas and the 94th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
5 other systems share Elk County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Howard, City Of. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Elk Co Rwd 2 | 520 | 2.19 ppb |
| Elk Co Rwd 1 | 494 | 0 (not detected) |
| Moline, City Of | 331 | 2.4 ppb |
| Longton, City Of | 277 | 0.6 ppb |
| Grenola, City Of | 148 | 1.4 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Howard, KS 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 Howard, City Of 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.