Malden Water Dept, WA
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (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. The latest 90th-percentile result was reported as 0 (not detected at the lab's limit). That says the sampled homes were low, not that your home has no lead service line. Check your utility's service line inventory for your address.
Malden Water Dept at a glance
Malden Water Dept serves about 215 people through 65 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 Whitman County, Washington. EPA system ID: WA5350550. Ask the utility on your bill for your address in their service line inventory.
Malden Water Dept's lead record
Against the period ending 2021 (1 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Malden Water Dept is 1.1 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2021 | 1 ppb |
| 2018 | 1.1 ppb |
How Malden Water Dept compares
Of the 2,218 Washington systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 18 are over 15 ppb right now and 62 have gone over at some point. Malden Water Dept's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 22nd percentile in Washington and the 16th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Neighbouring systems
18 other systems share Whitman County; 16 of them have a higher latest lead result than Malden Water Dept. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Pullman Water Department City Of | 31,315 | 2.1 ppb |
| Washington State University | 21,506 | 4.9 ppb |
| Colfax Water Department City Of | 3,507 | 3.8 ppb |
| Palouse Water Dept City Of | 1,298 | 3.2 ppb |
| Tekoa City Of | 1,076 | 1.4 ppb |
| Rosalia Town Of | 831 | 3.8 ppb |
| St John Town Of | 800 | 2.2 ppb |
| Garfield Water Department | 694 | 0 (not detected) |
| Colton Water Department | 632 | 4.1 ppb |
| Albion Water Dept | 600 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Rosalia, WA
Look up your address in Malden Water Dept's service line inventory. If it says lead, galvanized or unknown, test your tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Malden Water Dept 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. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.