Oyens Water Supply, IA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.3 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.
About Oyens Water Supply
Oyens Water Supply serves about 92 people through 64 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 groundwater, in Plymouth County, Iowa. EPA system ID: IA7561021; phone on file: 712-540-4171. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Oyens Water Supply's lead record
That is up 1.3 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2020. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Oyens Water Supply is 4 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 1.3 ppb |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 4 ppb |
Where this result ranks
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. Oyens Water Supply's 1.3 ppb sits at the 48th percentile in Iowa and the 60th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Plymouth County
9 other systems share Plymouth County; 6 of them have a higher latest lead result than Oyens Water Supply. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Lemars Water Department | 10,606 | 2.2 ppb |
| Remsen Municipal Utilities | 1,678 | 0 (not detected) |
| Akron, City Of | 1,558 | 3.6 ppb |
| Kingsley Water Supply | 1,396 | 1.1 ppb |
| Hinton Water Supply | 935 | 3.34 ppb |
| Merrill Municipal Water Supply | 717 | 3.73 ppb |
| Brunsville Municipal Water Supply | 129 | 8 ppb |
| Westfield Water Supply | 123 | 1.2 ppb |
| Craig Water Works | 79 | 5.2 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Remsen, 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 Oyens Water Supply 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.