Newbern Water Dept, TN
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.5 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 Newbern Water Dept
Newbern Water Dept serves about 8,098 people through 3,374 service connections, which makes it a medium-sized system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Dyer County, Tennessee. EPA system ID: TN0000496; phone on file: 731-627-3125. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Every lead result on file
That is up 1.9 ppb from 0.6 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Newbern Water Dept is 2.6 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2.5 ppb |
| 2022 | 0.6 ppb |
| 2019 | 2.6 ppb |
| 2016 | 0.9 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 453 Tennessee systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 0 are over 15 ppb right now and 10 have gone over at some point. Newbern Water Dept's 2.5 ppb sits at the 89th percentile in Tennessee and the 78th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Dyer County
4 other systems share Dyer County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Newbern Water Dept. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Dyersburg Water Dept | 19,970 | 1 ppb |
| Northwest Dyersburg U.D. | 3,996 | 1 ppb |
| Dyersburg Suburban C.U.D. | 3,538 | 1.3 ppb |
| Trimble Water System | 776 | 2.69 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Newbern, TN 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 Newbern Water Dept 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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.