Olds Municipal Water Dept, IA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2 ppb (monitoring period 2022-2024). 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
Olds Municipal Water Dept serves about 192 people through 180 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Henry County, Iowa. EPA system ID: IA4465093; phone on file: 319-254-2415. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
That is up 2 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2021. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Olds Municipal Water Dept is 2 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 2 ppb |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 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. Olds Municipal Water Dept's 2 ppb sits at the 60th percentile in Iowa and the 70th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
10 other systems share Henry County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Olds Municipal Water Dept. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Mount Pleasant Municipal Utilities | 9,274 | 0 (not detected) |
| New London Munic Water Dept | 1,910 | 1.1 ppb |
| Rathbun Regional Water (Mount Pleasant) | 1,465 | 2 ppb |
| Winfield Muni Water Dept | 1,035 | 0 (not detected) |
| Wayland Water Supply | 966 | 1 ppb |
| Salem Water Supply | 396 | 0 (not detected) |
| Hillsboro Water Works | 163 | 0 (not detected) |
| Rome Water Supply | 114 | 0 (not detected) |
| Westwood Water Supply | 101 | 0 (not detected) |
| Nancys Mhp | 77 | - |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Olds, 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 Olds Municipal 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. 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.