University Of Missouri Columbia, MO
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.01 ppb (monitoring period 2024-2026). 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 University Of Missouri Columbia
University Of Missouri Columbia serves about 40,000 people through 242 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by the state and draws groundwater, in Boone County, Missouri. EPA system ID: MO3069001; phone on file: 573-882-3094. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2025 (2.89 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for University Of Missouri Columbia is 3.73 ppb across 8 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 2.01 ppb |
| 2025 | 2.89 ppb |
| 2023 | 2.89 ppb |
| 2022 | 3.65 ppb |
| 2020 | 3.65 ppb |
| 2019 | 3.73 ppb |
| 2017 | 3.73 ppb |
| 2016 | 2.86 ppb |
Against other Missouri systems
Of the 1,674 Missouri systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.04 ppb; 2 are over 15 ppb right now and 74 have gone over at some point. University Of Missouri Columbia's 2.01 ppb sits at the 71st percentile in Missouri and the 73rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
11 other systems share Boone County; 7 of them have a higher latest lead result than University Of Missouri Columbia. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| City Of Columbia Utilities | 126,254 | 2.1 ppb |
| Boone County Cons Pwsd 1 | 24,700 | 3.48 ppb |
| Boone County Pwsd 9 | 15,035 | 3.79 ppb |
| Boone County Pwsd 4 | 6,455 | 2.49 ppb |
| Ashland Pws | 4,999 | 2.84 ppb |
| Boone County Pwsd 10 | 4,963 | 2.41 ppb |
| Centralia Pws | 4,027 | 1.32 ppb |
| Hallsville Pws | 1,732 | 1.81 ppb |
| Sturgeon Pws | 945 | 1.59 ppb |
| Kuhle H20 | 450 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Columbia, MO 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 University Of Missouri Columbia 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.