Merry Mountain Mutual, CA
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.
Who runs the water here
Merry Mountain Mutual serves about 90 people through 99 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Butte County, California. EPA system ID: CA0400013; phone on file: 530-675-3229. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Lead results over time
That is up 3 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2020. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Merry Mountain Mutual is 6.5 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 3 ppb |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 6.5 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 2,884 California systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 30 are over 15 ppb right now and 215 have gone over at some point. Merry Mountain Mutual's 3 ppb sits at the 85th percentile in California and the 81st nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
41 other systems share Butte County; 6 of them have a higher latest lead result than Merry Mountain Mutual. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Cal-Water Service Co.-Chico | 110,473 | 0 (not detected) |
| South Feather W&P - Miners Ranch | 22,638 | 0 (not detected) |
| Thermalito Water & Sewer Dist | 12,209 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cal-Water Service Co.-Oroville | 11,047 | 0.9 ppb |
| Del Oro Water Co.-Paradise Pines | 10,738 | 0.54 ppb |
| Paradise Irrigation District | 9,114 | 0 (not detected) |
| City Of Gridley | 7,269 | 0 (not detected) |
| City Of Biggs | 2,060 | 6.91 ppb |
| Durham Irrigation District | 1,581 | 0.74 ppb |
| Del Oro Water Co.-Lime Saddle Marina | 954 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Clipper Mills, CA
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Clipper Mills, CA 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 Merry Mountain Mutual 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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.