Poplar Bluff Pws, MO
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (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. The latest 90th-percentile result was reported as 0 (not detected at the lab's limit). That says the sampled homes were low, not that your home has no lead service line. Check your utility's service line inventory for your address.
Poplar Bluff Pws at a glance
Poplar Bluff Pws serves about 17,043 people through 7,667 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Butler County, Missouri. EPA system ID: MO4010656; phone on file: 573-686-8003. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Lead results over time
That is down 1.22 ppb from 1.22 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Poplar Bluff Pws is 3.6 ppb across 8 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2028 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2025 | 1.22 ppb |
| 2022 | 2.03 ppb |
| 2022 | 2.03 ppb |
| 2019 | 3.27 ppb |
| 2019 | 3.27 ppb |
| 2016 | 3.6 ppb |
| 2016 | 3.6 ppb |
Against other Missouri systems
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. Poplar Bluff Pws's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 39th percentile in Missouri and the 38th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Nearby utilities
11 other systems share Butler County; 7 of them have a higher latest lead result than Poplar Bluff Pws. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Butler County Pwsd 1 | 12,000 | 1.42 ppb |
| Butler County Pwsd 3 | 2,600 | 0 (not detected) |
| Butler County Pwsd 2 | 1,500 | 0 (not detected) |
| Neelyville Pws | 485 | 2.44 ppb |
| Butler County Pwsd 104 | 475 | 1.49 ppb |
| Qulin Pws | 375 | 1.6 ppb |
| Fisk Pws | 342 | 1.51 ppb |
| Liberty Utilities Lakeland Hts Water Co | 290 | 0 (not detected) |
| W E Sears Youth Center | 150 | 2.32 ppb |
| Liberty Utilities Oakbrier Estates | 143 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Look up your address in Poplar Bluff Pws's service line inventory. If it says lead, galvanized or unknown, test your tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Poplar Bluff Pws 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. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.