Neola Light & Water, IA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 4.4 ppb (monitoring period 2023-2025). 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 Neola Light & Water
Neola Light & Water serves about 906 people through 443 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 Pottawattamie County, Iowa. EPA system ID: IA7853043; phone on file: 712-485-2307. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Lead results over time
That is down 7.5 ppb from 11.9 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Neola Light & Water is 11.9 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb (1 over 10 ppb).
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 4.4 ppb |
| 2022 | 11.9 ppb over 10 |
| 2019 | 8.6 ppb |
| 2016 | 4.4 ppb |
How Neola Light & Water 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. Neola Light & Water's 4.4 ppb sits at the 86th percentile in Iowa and the 89th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
14 other systems share Pottawattamie County; 2 of them have a higher latest lead result than Neola Light & Water. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Council Bluffs Water Works | 64,447 | 2 ppb |
| Carter Lake Water District | 3,791 | 3 ppb |
| Avoca Water Works | 1,697 | 0 (not detected) |
| Urban Bluffs - North | 1,558 | 2 ppb |
| Oakland Munic Water Utility | 1,524 | 1.3 ppb |
| Treynor Water Department | 1,049 | 5 ppb |
| Lakeside Estates Llc | 823 | 0 (not detected) |
| Crescent Water Supply | 778 | 0 (not detected) |
| Walnut Municipal Utilities | 768 | 0 (not detected) |
| Carson Water Supply | 766 | 1 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Adair, 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 Neola Light & Water whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 1480 ppb (copper action level 1,300 ppb).
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. Size matters more than most people expect: small vs large water systems.