Meriden Municipal Water Supply, IA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 3 ppb (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. 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.
Meriden Municipal Water Supply at a glance
Meriden Municipal Water Supply serves about 161 people through 83 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 Cherokee County, Iowa. EPA system ID: IA1849071; phone on file: 712-732-7745. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Meriden Municipal Water Supply's lead record
That is up 1.6 ppb from 1.4 ppb in the period ending 2020. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Meriden Municipal Water Supply is 4.4 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 3 ppb |
| 2020 | 1.4 ppb |
| 2017 | 4.4 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. Meriden Municipal Water Supply's 3 ppb sits at the 74th percentile in Iowa and the 81st nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
10 other systems share Cherokee County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Meriden Municipal Water Supply. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Cherokee Water Supply - Plant 1 | 5,199 | 1.5 ppb |
| Cherokee Rws - Cherokee Subsystem | 3,315 | 2.2 ppb |
| Cherokee Rws- Mill Creek Subsystem | 1,451 | 11.6 ppb |
| Marcus Water Supply | 1,079 | 1.5 ppb |
| Aurelia Water Supply | 968 | 1.5 ppb |
| Quimby Water Supply | 249 | 0.5 ppb |
| Cleghorn Water Supply | 247 | 0 (not detected) |
| Washta Water Supply | 209 | 1.2 ppb |
| Larrabee Municipal Water Works | 125 | 0 (not detected) |
| Hilltop Village Mhc, Inc. | 78 | 0 (not detected) |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Storm Lake, 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 Meriden Municipal 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. The lead result guide covers how utilities pick the homes they sample. Size matters more than most people expect: small vs large water systems.