Mountain Orchard Mdwca, NM
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2 ppb (monitoring period 2026-2026). 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.
Mountain Orchard Mdwca at a glance
Mountain Orchard Mdwca serves about 105 people through 39 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 Otero County, New Mexico. EPA system ID: NM3563619; phone on file: 575-682-6964. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2022 (1 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Mountain Orchard Mdwca is 4 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 ppb |
| 2022 | 1 ppb |
| 2018 | 4 ppb |
| 2017 | 2.6 ppb |
How Mountain Orchard Mdwca compares
Of the 504 New Mexico systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 14 are over 15 ppb right now and 46 have gone over at some point. Mountain Orchard Mdwca's 2 ppb sits at the 58th percentile in New Mexico and the 70th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
35 other systems share Otero County; 16 of them have a higher latest lead result than Mountain Orchard Mdwca. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Alamogordo Domestic Water System | 35,301 | 2 ppb |
| Holloman Air Force Base | 13,000 | 1.3 ppb |
| Tularosa Water System | 3,485 | 1.9 ppb |
| Cloudcroft Water System | 2,865 | 2.6 ppb |
| Timberon W And Sd | 2,698 | 3.1 ppb |
| La Luz Mdwca | 1,917 | 3.9 ppb |
| Twin Forks Mdwca | 1,274 | 3.6 ppb |
| Cloud Country West Water System | 684 | 1.5 ppb |
| Boles Acres Water System | 657 | 0 (not detected) |
| Eileen Acres Mdwca | 457 | - |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; High Rolls, NM 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 Mountain Orchard Mdwca 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.