Lake Water Works, MS
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1 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.
Lake Water Works at a glance
Lake Water Works serves about 500 people through 247 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 Scott County, Mississippi. EPA system ID: MS0620008; phone on file: 601-775-3552. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Lake Water Works's lead record
Against the period ending 2020 (1.4 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Lake Water Works is 1.4 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 ppb |
| 2020 | 1.4 ppb |
| 2017 | 1.2 ppb |
Where this result ranks
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. Lake Water Works's 1 ppb sits at the 48th percentile in Mississippi and the 53rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
11 other systems share Scott County; 8 of them have a higher latest lead result than Lake Water Works. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Sebastopol Water Association | 6,207 | 1.2 ppb |
| City Of Forest | 5,430 | 2.2 ppb |
| City Of Morton | 3,400 | 0.5 ppb |
| H & H Water System, Inc | 3,036 | 2.9 ppb |
| Steele-Ringgold W/A #1 | 2,965 | 1.5 ppb |
| Steele-Ringgold W/A #2 | 2,883 | 0.8 ppb |
| Homewood Water Association | 1,877 | 0.9 ppb |
| C & C W/A | 1,808 | 1.3 ppb |
| L & F Water Association | 1,803 | 1.5 ppb |
| Homestead Water Association | 1,251 | 1.4 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Lake, 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 Lake Water Works 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. Size matters more than most people expect: small vs large water systems.