Parks Utilities, MO

Lead detected, under the action levels

Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.6 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.

Parks Utilities at a glance

Parks Utilities serves about 898 people through 491 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Noxubee County, Missouri. EPA system ID: MS0520023; phone on file: 314-736-4743. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.

Parks Utilities's lead record

Against the period ending 2017 (1.2 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Parks Utilities is 1.6 ppb across 2 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.

How Parks Utilities compares

Of the 1,674 Missouri systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.04 ppb; 2 are over 15 ppb right now and 74 have gone over at some point. Parks Utilities's 1.6 ppb sits at the 63rd percentile in Missouri and the 65th nationally (higher means more lead).

Next steps for Des Peres, MO

Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Des Peres, MO 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 Parks Utilities 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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.