Salem Water System, LA
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2023-2023). 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.
Salem Water System at a glance
Salem Water System serves about 753 people through 251 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Union Parish County, Louisiana. EPA system ID: LA1111014; phone on file: 318-368-9009. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2017 (1 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Salem Water System is 1 ppb across 2 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 1 ppb |
How Salem Water System compares
Of the 802 Louisiana systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0.72 ppb; 4 are over 15 ppb right now and 30 have gone over at some point. Salem Water System's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 16th percentile in Louisiana and the 25th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Nearby utilities
17 other systems share Union Parish County; 10 of them have a higher latest lead result than Salem Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Town Of Farmerville Water System | 5,352 | 1.3 ppb |
| Darbonne Ws South | 3,261 | 0 (not detected) |
| Darbonne Ws North | 3,186 | 0 (not detected) |
| Holmesville Water System | 2,406 | 0 (not detected) |
| Point Wilhite Ws | 2,292 | 0 (not detected) |
| Town Of Bernice Water System | 1,863 | 0 (not detected) |
| Rocky Branch Water System | 1,650 | 1.6 ppb |
| Linville-Haile Water System | 1,635 | 2.4 ppb |
| Union Parish Waterworks District 1 | 1,626 | 0.75 ppb |
| Wards Chapel Water System | 1,620 | 1.2 ppb |
Your move
Look up your address in Salem 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 Salem 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. What a 90th-percentile result does and does not tell you: how to read a lead result. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.