Nps - Death Valley, Stovepipe Wells, CA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 4.1 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.
Nps - Death Valley, Stovepipe Wells at a glance
Nps - Death Valley, Stovepipe Wells serves about 25 people through 14 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is federally owned and draws groundwater, in Inyo County, California. EPA system ID: CA1410502; phone on file: 760-786-3295. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Nps - Death Valley, Stovepipe Wells's lead record
That is down 6.9 ppb from 11 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Nps - Death Valley, Stovepipe Wells is 12 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb (2 over 10 ppb).
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 4.1 ppb |
| 2022 | 11 ppb over 10 |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 12 ppb over 10 |
Against other California systems
Of the 2,884 California systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 30 are over 15 ppb right now and 215 have gone over at some point. Nps - Death Valley, Stovepipe Wells's 4.1 ppb sits at the 90th percentile in California and the 88th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
43 other systems share Inyo County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Nps - Death Valley, Stovepipe Wells. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Bishop, City Of | 3,819 | 0 (not detected) |
| Inyo County Pwd - Lone Pine | 1,835 | 0 (not detected) |
| Highland Mobile Home Park | 1,260 | 0 (not detected) |
| Inyo County Pwd - Independence | 1,108 | 0 (not detected) |
| Indian Creek Csd | 1,030 | 0 (not detected) |
| Rolling Green Utilities, Inc. | 940 | 0 (not detected) |
| Big Pine Csd | 798 | 0 (not detected) |
| Meadowcreek Mutual Water Company | 764 | 0 (not detected) |
| Sierra Highland Csd | 600 | 0 (not detected) |
| Glenwood Mobile Estates | 468 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Death Valley, CA 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 Nps - Death Valley, Stovepipe Wells 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. The lead result guide covers how utilities pick the homes they sample. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.