Palmer Creek Csd, CA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 5.06 ppb (monitoring period 2026-2028). 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
Palmer Creek Csd serves about 320 people through 132 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 Humboldt County, California. EPA system ID: CA1206004; phone on file: 707-932-0864. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Every lead result on file
That is down 3.71 ppb from 8.77 ppb in the period ending 2024. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Palmer Creek Csd is 11 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb (1 over 10 ppb).
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2028 | 5.06 ppb |
| 2024 | 8.77 ppb |
| 2018 | 9.6 ppb |
| 2017 | 4 ppb |
| 2017 | 11 ppb over 10 |
Where this result ranks
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. Palmer Creek Csd's 5.06 ppb sits at the 92nd percentile in California and the 91st nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Humboldt County
43 other systems share Humboldt County; 2 of them have a higher latest lead result than Palmer Creek Csd. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Eureka, City Of | 27,078 | 2.3 ppb |
| Humboldt C.S.D. | 19,775 | 2.05 ppb |
| Arcata, City Of | 18,857 | 2.54 ppb |
| Mckinleyville C.S.D. | 16,900 | 1.78 ppb |
| Fortuna, City Of | 12,133 | 1.8 ppb |
| Rio Dell, City Of | 3,300 | 0 (not detected) |
| Garberville Sanitary District | 2,041 | 0 (not detected) |
| Fieldbrook Glendale C.S.D. | 1,845 | 0 (not detected) |
| Willow Creek C.S.D. | 1,720 | 0 (not detected) |
| Del Oro Water Co-Ferndale | 1,662 | 3.5 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Fortuna, 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 Palmer Creek Csd whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 1400 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.