Lower Arroyo Hondo Mdwca, NM
Above the new 10 ppb level coming in 2027
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 14 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. Under the current 15 ppb rule this is not an exceedance, but it is above the 10 ppb action level that takes over in Nov 2027. Test your own tap; filter if your result shows lead.
Who runs the water here
Lower Arroyo Hondo Mdwca serves about 180 people through 63 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 Taos County, New Mexico. EPA system ID: NM3505429; phone on file: 575-770-6291. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Every lead result on file
That is up 12.6 ppb from 1.4 ppb in the period ending 2018. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Lower Arroyo Hondo Mdwca is 14 ppb across 2 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb (1 over 10 ppb).
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 14 ppb over 10 |
| 2018 | 1.4 ppb |
Against other New Mexico systems
Of the 504 New Mexico systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 14 are over 15 ppb right now and 46 have gone over at some point. Lower Arroyo Hondo Mdwca's 14 ppb sits at the 97th percentile in New Mexico and the 99th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
41 other systems share Taos County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Lower Arroyo Hondo Mdwca. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Taos Municipal Water System | 5,528 | 5 ppb |
| Questa Water System | 2,337 | 3.3 ppb |
| El Prado Water & Sanitation District | 1,076 | 7 ppb |
| Village Of Taos Ski Valley | 1,025 | 2.6 ppb |
| Llano Quemado Mdwca | 800 | 2 ppb |
| Ranchos De Taos Mdwca | 750 | 2.7 ppb |
| Talpa Mdwca | 700 | 2.2 ppb |
| Red River Water System | 679 | - |
| Chamisal Mdwca | 550 | 1.7 ppb |
| Penasco Mdwca | 549 | 5.3 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Arroyo Seco, NM 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 Lower Arroyo Hondo Mdwca 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. See what changes at 10 ppb in 2027.