Laurel Municipal Water Works, IA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 3.2 ppb (monitoring period 2022-2024). 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
Laurel Municipal Water Works serves about 220 people through 123 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 Marshall County, Iowa. EPA system ID: IA6452062; phone on file: 641-485-6363. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Laurel Municipal Water Works's lead record
That is up 2.6 ppb from 0.6 ppb in the period ending 2021. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Laurel Municipal Water Works is 3.2 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 3.2 ppb |
| 2021 | 0.6 ppb |
| 2018 | 1.8 ppb |
How Laurel Municipal Water Works compares
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. Laurel Municipal Water Works's 3.2 ppb sits at the 78th percentile in Iowa and the 84th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
12 other systems share Marshall County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Laurel Municipal Water Works. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Marshalltown Water Works | 27,680 | 2 ppb |
| State Center Muni Water Dept | 1,411 | 0.5 ppb |
| Le Grand Water Works | 910 | 1.1 ppb |
| Melbourne Water Supply | 765 | 5.7 ppb |
| Gilman Water Supply | 582 | 0 (not detected) |
| Sunset Village | 528 | 0 (not detected) |
| Albion Water Department | 448 | 1.4 ppb |
| Marshalltown Estates | 382 | 3 ppb |
| Liscomb Water Supply | 291 | 0 (not detected) |
| Rhodes Water Supply | 271 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Laurel, IA
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Laurel, 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 Laurel Municipal 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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.