Little Bear Water Company, CA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.1 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.
Who runs the water here
Little Bear Water Company serves about 2,327 people through 703 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Monterey County, California. EPA system ID: CA2710016; phone on file: 831-385-3524. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Little Bear Water Company's lead record
That is down 1.6 ppb from 3.7 ppb in the period ending 2020. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Little Bear Water Company is 8 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 2.1 ppb |
| 2020 | 3.7 ppb |
| 2017 | 8 ppb |
How Little Bear Water Company compares
Of the 2,884 California systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 30 are over 15 ppb right now and 215 have gone over at some point. Little Bear Water Company's 2.1 ppb sits at the 79th percentile in California and the 74th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
155 other systems share Monterey County; 51 of them have a higher latest lead result than Little Bear Water Company. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Cal Am Water Company - Monterey | 128,928 | 1 ppb |
| Cwsc Salinas | 114,286 | 1.2 ppb |
| Alco Water Service | 56,253 | 0 (not detected) |
| Marina Coast Water District | 38,918 | 0 (not detected) |
| Soledad, City Of | 19,732 | 0 (not detected) |
| Greenfield, City Of | 18,967 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cwsc King City | 14,046 | 0 (not detected) |
| Gonzales, City Of | 8,333 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cwsc Salinas Hills | 7,733 | 0.9 ppb |
| Castroville Community Services District | 7,515 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Soledad, CA 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 Little Bear Water Company 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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.