Portales Water System, NM
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2024-2026). 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.
Portales Water System at a glance
Portales Water System serves about 14,284 people through 5,431 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 groundwater, in Roosevelt County, New Mexico. EPA system ID: NM3528522; phone on file: 575-356-6662. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Lead results over time
That is down 1.6 ppb from 1.6 ppb in the period ending 2020. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Portales Water System is 2 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 1.6 ppb |
| 2017 | 2 ppb |
Against other New Mexico systems
Of the 504 New Mexico systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 14 are over 15 ppb right now and 46 have gone over at some point. Portales Water System's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 23rd percentile in New Mexico and the 38th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Other water systems in Roosevelt County
5 other systems share Roosevelt County; 4 of them have a higher latest lead result than Portales Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Roosevelt County Wua | 3,720 | 0 (not detected) |
| Elida Water System | 273 | 0.41 ppb |
| Dora Water System | 161 | 1.1 ppb |
| Floyd Ws Village Of | 101 | 0.64 ppb |
| Causey Water System | 80 | 1 ppb |
Your move
Look up your address in Portales Water System'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 Portales Water System 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.