Melbourne Water Supply, IA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 5.7 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. 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.
About Melbourne Water Supply
Melbourne Water Supply serves about 765 people through 360 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 Marshall County, Iowa. EPA system ID: IA6471063; phone on file: 641-482-3338. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Every lead result on file
That is up 5.7 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2021. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Melbourne Water Supply is 5.7 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 5.7 ppb |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 1.8 ppb |
How Melbourne Water Supply compares
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. Melbourne Water Supply's 5.7 ppb sits at the 91st percentile in Iowa and the 92nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
12 other systems share Marshall County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Melbourne Water Supply. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Marshalltown Water Works | 27,680 | 2 ppb |
| State Center Muni Water Dept | 1,411 | 0.5 ppb |
| Le Grand Water Works | 910 | 1.1 ppb |
| Gilman Water Supply | 582 | 0 (not detected) |
| Sunset Village | 528 | 0 (not detected) |
| Albion Water Department | 448 | 1.4 ppb |
| Marshalltown Estates | 382 | 3 ppb |
| Liscomb Water Supply | 291 | 0 (not detected) |
| Rhodes Water Supply | 271 | 0 (not detected) |
| Laurel Municipal Water Works | 220 | 3.2 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Melbourne, IA 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 Melbourne Water Supply 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.