Kiester, 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.
Who runs the water here
Kiester serves about 491 people through 320 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Faribault County, Minnesota. EPA system ID: MN1220008; phone on file: 5072943161. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Kiester's lead record
That is down 2 ppb from 4 ppb in the period ending 2024. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Kiester is 4 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2 ppb |
| 2024 | 4 ppb |
| 2024 | 2 ppb |
| 2023 | 2 ppb |
Against other Minnesota systems
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. Kiester's 2 ppb sits at the 70th percentile in Minnesota and the 71st nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Faribault County
11 other systems share Faribault County; 7 of them have a higher latest lead result than Kiester. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Blue Earth Light And Water | 3,174 | 11 ppb |
| Wells | 2,343 | 0 (not detected) |
| Winnebago | 1,391 | 9 ppb |
| Minnesota Lake | 683 | 7 ppb |
| Elmore | 548 | 3 ppb |
| Bricelyn | 359 | 3 ppb |
| Easton | 199 | 7 ppb |
| Frost | 191 | 0 (not detected) |
| Delavan | 171 | 1 ppb |
| Huntley Well Corporation | 78 | 3 ppb |
Next steps for Kiester, MN
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Kiester, 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 Kiester whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 1726 ppb (copper action level 1,300 ppb).
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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.