Prairie Wc, CO
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.5 ppb (monitoring period 2026-2026). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. The latest result is under the action level, but this system has gone over 15 ppb before. Lead comes from pipes, not the source water, so a home with a lead service line can still be exposed. Test your own tap.
Prairie Wc at a glance
Prairie Wc serves about 300 people through 125 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Elbert County, Colorado. EPA system ID: CO0120020; phone on file: 303-694-1681. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Lead results over time
That is up 1.5 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Prairie Wc is 16.5 ppb across 18 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 1.5 ppb |
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2024 | 0.5 ppb |
| 2023 | 2 ppb |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 3 ppb |
| 2021 | 2 ppb |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 2 ppb |
| 2020 | 1 ppb |
| 2019 | 2 ppb |
| 2019 | 1 ppb |
| 2018 | 2 ppb |
| 2018 | 2 ppb |
| 2017 | 2 ppb |
| 2017 | 13.7 ppb over 10 |
| 2016 | 16.5 ppb over 15 |
Against other Colorado systems
Of the 1,025 Colorado systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 2 are over 15 ppb right now and 71 have gone over at some point. Prairie Wc's 1.5 ppb sits at the 64th percentile in Colorado and the 63rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
14 other systems share Elbert County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than Prairie Wc. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Elizabeth Town Of | 4,523 | 4 ppb |
| Spring Valley Md No 1 | 1,788 | 0 (not detected) |
| Elbert County Hwy 86 Wd | 1,040 | 1.8 ppb |
| Kiowa Water And Wastewater Authority | 910 | 3 ppb |
| Deer Creek Wd | 792 | 0 (not detected) |
| Simla Town Of | 618 | 2 ppb |
| Independence Wsd | 567 | 0 (not detected) |
| Elkhorn Ranch Md No 1 | 530 | 0.5 ppb |
| Gambel Oaks Hoa | 350 | 0 (not detected) |
| Elbert Wsd | 300 | 0 (not detected) |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Englewood, CO 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 Prairie Wc 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. More in what a past exceedance means today.