Malaga Mdwc Swa, NM
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1 ppb (monitoring period 2025-2027). 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
Malaga Mdwc Swa serves about 868 people through 325 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Eddy County, New Mexico. EPA system ID: NM3521208; phone on file: 575-745-2913. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2026 (1.7 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Malaga Mdwc Swa is 1.7 ppb across 2 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2027 | 1 ppb |
| 2026 | 1.7 ppb |
How Malaga Mdwc Swa compares
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. Malaga Mdwc Swa's 1 ppb sits at the 41st percentile in New Mexico and the 53rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Eddy County
13 other systems share Eddy County; 7 of them have a higher latest lead result than Malaga Mdwc Swa. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Carlsbad Municipal Water System | 33,626 | 0.73 ppb |
| Artesia Municipal Water System | 15,176 | 1.4 ppb |
| Otis Mdwca | 4,464 | 3 ppb |
| Artesia Rural Water Cooperative | 1,950 | 0.99 ppb |
| Loving Water System | 1,862 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cottonwood Water Mdwca | 1,781 | 2 ppb |
| Happy Valley Cooperative Water Works | 638 | 2.6 ppb |
| Morningside Water Users Cooperative | 348 | - |
| Hope Water System | 245 | 0 (not detected) |
| Riverside Mdwa | 227 | 17.9 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Malaga, 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 Malaga Mdwc Swa 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.