Iowa City Water Department, IA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 4 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
Iowa City Water Department serves about 68,753 people through 28,765 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Johnson County, Iowa. EPA system ID: IA5225079; phone on file: 319-356-5169. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Iowa City Water Department's lead record
That is up 2 ppb from 2 ppb in the period ending 2020. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Iowa City Water Department is 12 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb (1 over 10 ppb).
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 4 ppb |
| 2020 | 2 ppb |
| 2017 | 12 ppb over 10 |
Against other Iowa systems
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. Iowa City Water Department's 4 ppb sits at the 85th percentile in Iowa and the 88th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
74 other systems share Johnson County; 6 of them have a higher latest lead result than Iowa City Water Department. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| University Water System | 47,136 | 0 (not detected) |
| North Liberty Water Supply | 23,276 | 0 (not detected) |
| Coralville Muni Water System | 22,318 | 3 ppb |
| Tiffin Water Supply | 7,577 | 0 (not detected) |
| Solon Water Dept | 3,018 | 7 ppb |
| Lone Tree Muni Water System | 1,357 | 2 ppb |
| Lake Ridge, Incorporated | 1,300 | 0 (not detected) |
| Modern Manor, Inc | 915 | 1 ppb |
| Hills Water Supply | 863 | 2 ppb |
| Western Hills (Mobile) Estates | 760 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Iowa 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 Iowa City Water Department 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.