Town Of Benoit, MS
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.3 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.
Who runs the water here
Town Of Benoit serves about 494 people through 187 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 Bolivar County, Mississippi. EPA system ID: MS0060002; phone on file: 662-742-3751. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2022 (2.4 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Town Of Benoit is 8.1 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2.3 ppb |
| 2022 | 2.4 ppb |
| 2017 | 8.1 ppb |
How Town Of Benoit compares
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 Benoit's 2.3 ppb sits at the 82nd percentile in Mississippi and the 76th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Bolivar County
25 other systems share Bolivar County; 8 of them have a higher latest lead result than Town Of Benoit. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| City Of Cleveland | 16,392 | 1.3 ppb |
| City Of Shelby | 1,998 | 0 (not detected) |
| City Of Mound Bayou | 1,711 | 2.2 ppb |
| City Of Rosedale | 1,708 | 2.38 ppb |
| Town Of Shaw | 1,639 | 0.7 ppb |
| Delta State University | 1,500 | 5.2 ppb |
| Boyle-Skene W/A#3 | 1,486 | 2 ppb |
| Town Of Boyle | 1,400 | 1.1 ppb |
| Town Of Renova | 1,357 | 2 ppb |
| Boyle-Skene W/A #2 | 1,156 | 2.39 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Benoit, 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 Benoit 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.