St James Water System, LA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 3 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.
About St James Water System
St James Water System serves about 360 people through 120 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Webster Parish County, Louisiana. EPA system ID: LA1119035; phone on file: 318-377-3488. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
St James Water System's lead record
That is up 2 ppb from 1 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for St James Water System is 7 ppb across 7 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 3 ppb |
| 2022 | 1 ppb |
| 2019 | 1 ppb |
| 2018 | 2 ppb |
| 2017 | 2 ppb |
| 2017 | 3 ppb |
| 2016 | 7 ppb |
How St James 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. St James Water System's 3 ppb sits at the 87th percentile in Louisiana and the 82nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Webster Parish County
25 other systems share Webster Parish County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than St James Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| City Of Minden Water System | 16,281 | 0 (not detected) |
| City Of Springhill Water System | 7,800 | 1 ppb |
| Town Of Sibley Water System | 2,373 | 0.6 ppb |
| Shongaloo Water System | 2,196 | 0 (not detected) |
| Blocker Water System | 1,719 | 1 ppb |
| Pleasant Valley Water System | 1,683 | 3 ppb |
| Gil-Gal Water System | 1,551 | 0 (not detected) |
| Village Of Sarepta Water System | 1,500 | 0.5 ppb |
| Dixie Overland Water System | 1,455 | 0.59 ppb |
| Germantown Water System | 1,410 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Minden, LA
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Minden, LA 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 St James Water System whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 1400 ppb (copper action level 1,300 ppb).
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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.