New Ulm, MN
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2 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
New Ulm serves about 14,052 people through 5,457 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Brown County, Minnesota. EPA system ID: MN1080003; phone on file: 5073598264. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2020 (2 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for New Ulm is 9 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 2 ppb |
| 2020 | 2 ppb |
| 2017 | 9 ppb |
How New Ulm compares
Of the 966 Minnesota systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 7 are over 15 ppb right now and 48 have gone over at some point. New Ulm's 2 ppb sits at the 76th percentile in Minnesota and the 73rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
6 other systems share Brown County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than New Ulm. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Sleepy Eye | 3,599 | 3 ppb |
| Springfield | 2,070 | 18 ppb |
| Comfrey | 402 | 3 ppb |
| Hanska | 393 | 0 (not detected) |
| Evan | 86 | 11 ppb |
| Cobden | 33 | 5 ppb |
Next steps for New Ulm, MN
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; New Ulm, MN 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 New Ulm 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.