Sutherland Water Supply, IA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.1 ppb (monitoring period 2022-2024). 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.
Sutherland Water Supply at a glance
Sutherland Water Supply serves about 629 people through 399 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in O'Brien County, Iowa. EPA system ID: IA7177007; phone on file: 712-446-2242. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Sutherland Water Supply's lead record
Against the period ending 2021 (1.3 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Sutherland Water Supply is 2.3 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 1.1 ppb |
| 2021 | 1.3 ppb |
| 2018 | 2.3 ppb |
Against other Iowa systems
Of the 1,066 Iowa systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 4 are over 15 ppb right now and 36 have gone over at some point. Sutherland Water Supply's 1.1 ppb sits at the 45th percentile in Iowa and the 57th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
6 other systems share O'Brien County; 3 of them have a higher latest lead result than Sutherland Water Supply. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Sheldon Water Department | 5,512 | 2 ppb |
| Hartley Municipal Water Department | 1,605 | 1.6 ppb |
| Sanborn Water Supply | 1,392 | 0 (not detected) |
| Paullina Municipal Water Supply | 996 | 0 (not detected) |
| Primghar Municipal Water Supply | 902 | 3.3 ppb |
| Calumet Water Supply | 146 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Sutherland, IA
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Sutherland, IA 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 Sutherland Water Supply 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.