Martelle Water Works, IA
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (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. 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.
Who runs the water here
Martelle Water Works serves about 249 people through 125 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 Jones County, Iowa. EPA system ID: IA5337046; phone on file: 319-669-6130. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Lead results over time
That is down 4.7 ppb from 4.7 ppb in the period ending 2020. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Martelle Water Works is 4.7 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 4.7 ppb |
| 2017 | 2 ppb |
Against other Iowa systems
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. Martelle Water Works's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 13th percentile in Iowa and the 17th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Neighbouring systems
10 other systems share Jones County; 7 of them have a higher latest lead result than Martelle Water Works. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Anamosa Municipal Water Supply | 4,457 | 1 ppb |
| Monticello Water Supply | 4,040 | 3 ppb |
| Anamosa State Penitentiary | 1,230 | 0 (not detected) |
| Olin Water Supply | 651 | 3.1 ppb |
| Wyoming Water System | 523 | 2.4 ppb |
| Oxford Junction Water Supply | 424 | 0.9 ppb |
| Onslow Water Supply | 201 | 0.6 ppb |
| Center Junction (Eiruss) | 100 | 0 (not detected) |
| Morley Municipal Water Supply | 98 | 0 (not detected) |
| Bacon Addition | 81 | 2 ppb |
Next steps for Cedar Rapids, IA
Look up your address in Martelle Water Works'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 Martelle 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. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.