Newell Water Treatment Plant, IA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.1 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 Newell Water Treatment Plant
Newell Water Treatment Plant serves about 921 people through 396 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 Buena Vista County, Iowa. EPA system ID: IA1155049; phone on file: 712-272-4410. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2022 (1.8 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Newell Water Treatment Plant is 1.8 ppb across 7 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.1 ppb |
| 2022 | 1.8 ppb |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 0 (not detected) |
Against other Iowa systems
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. Newell Water Treatment Plant's 1.1 ppb sits at the 46th percentile in Iowa and the 57th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Buena Vista County
10 other systems share Buena Vista County; 4 of them have a higher latest lead result than Newell Water Treatment Plant. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Storm Lake Water Treatment Plant | 11,431 | 0 (not detected) |
| Alta Municipal Water Plant | 2,087 | 0 (not detected) |
| Sioux Rapids Water Department | 932 | 6.5 ppb |
| Lakeside Water Supply | 700 | 0.7 ppb |
| Albert City Muni Water Supply | 677 | 1.4 ppb |
| Marathon Light & Water Department | 230 | 2 ppb |
| Rembrandt Water Supply | 209 | 0 (not detected) |
| Lake Creek Homeowners Association | 175 | 0.1 ppb |
| Linn Grove Water Works | 163 | 2.3 ppb |
| Truesdale Water Supply | 69 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Newell, 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 Newell Water Treatment Plant whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 1600 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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.