Traverse City, MI
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 4 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.
Traverse City at a glance
Traverse City serves about 14,532 people through 7,738 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Grand Traverse County, Michigan. EPA system ID: MI0006640; phone on file: 231-922-4920. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Traverse City's lead record
That is down 2 ppb from 6 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Traverse City is 6 ppb across 6 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 4 ppb |
| 2022 | 6 ppb |
| 2019 | 1 ppb |
| 2018 | 2 ppb |
| 2018 | 4 ppb |
| 2017 | 0 (not detected) |
Where this result ranks
Of the 1,227 Michigan systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 31 are over 15 ppb right now and 109 have gone over at some point. Traverse City's 4 ppb sits at the 85th percentile in Michigan and the 88th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Grand Traverse County
20 other systems share Grand Traverse County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Traverse City. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Garfield Charter Township | 12,899 | 2 ppb |
| East Bay Charter Township | 3,720 | 0 (not detected) |
| Blair Township | 2,788 | 3 ppb |
| Peninsula Township | 1,790 | 0 (not detected) |
| Kingsley, Village Of | 1,657 | - |
| Kings Court Mobile Home Park | 1,200 | 0 (not detected) |
| Interlochen Center For The Arts | 750 | 11 ppb |
| Edge 72 | 288 | 3 ppb |
| Acme Township - Hope Village | 128 | 0 (not detected) |
| Black Bear Farms | 110 | 3 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Traverse City, MI 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 Traverse City 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.