Rochester, MN
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 7 ppb (monitoring period 2023-2025). 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
Rochester serves about 123,624 people through 42,243 service connections, which makes it a very large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Olmsted County, Minnesota. EPA system ID: MN1550010; phone on file: 5072801601. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Rochester's lead record
That is up 4 ppb from 3 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Rochester is 7 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 ppb |
| 2022 | 3 ppb |
| 2019 | 6 ppb |
| 2016 | 4 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 966 Minnesota systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 7 are over 15 ppb right now and 48 have gone over at some point. Rochester's 7 ppb sits at the 96th percentile in Minnesota and the 95th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
16 other systems share Olmsted County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Rochester. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Stewartville | 6,850 | 3 ppb |
| Byron | 6,809 | 2 ppb |
| Eyota | 2,043 | 2 ppb |
| Oronoco | 2,040 | 2 ppb |
| Dover | 895 | 5 ppb |
| Chester Heights | 300 | 5 ppb |
| Zumbro Ridge Estates | 270 | 0 (not detected) |
| Hallmark Terrace Mobile Home Park | 170 | 0 (not detected) |
| Sandy Slopes Community | 158 | 0 (not detected) |
| Meadowbrook Addition | 125 | 2 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Rochester, MN 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 Rochester 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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.