Town Of Artesia, MS
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.8 ppb (monitoring period 2021-2023). 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.
Town Of Artesia at a glance
Town Of Artesia serves about 496 people through 245 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Lowndes County, Mississippi. EPA system ID: MS0440001; phone on file: 662-272-5104. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2020 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Town Of Artesia is 0.8 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 0.8 ppb |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 0.8 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 973 Mississippi systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 9 are over 15 ppb right now and 44 have gone over at some point. Town Of Artesia's 0.8 ppb sits at the 37th percentile in Mississippi and the 48th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
11 other systems share Lowndes County; 3 of them have a higher latest lead result than Town Of Artesia. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Columbus Light & Water | 23,616 | 0.5 ppb |
| East Lowndes W/A B West-Old Yorkville Rd | 7,355 | 0 (not detected) |
| East Lowndes W/A #2-Huckleberry | 7,035 | 0 (not detected) |
| Town Of Caledonia | 6,589 | 0 (not detected) |
| East Lowndes #4-Herman-Vaughn | 5,678 | 0 (not detected) |
| East Lowndes W/A A East-Old Yorkville | 4,778 | 0 (not detected) |
| Columbus Air Force Base | 3,300 | 1.4 ppb |
| Prairie Land Water Association, Inc | 2,500 | 5.8 ppb |
| East Lowndes W/A #1-Lee Stokes | 2,209 | 0 (not detected) |
| South Lowndes W/A | 1,230 | 0 (not detected) |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Artesia, MS 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 Town Of Artesia 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. Size matters more than most people expect: small vs large water systems.