Vallecitos Mdwca, NM
Above the new 10 ppb level coming in 2027
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 11 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. Under the current 15 ppb rule this is not an exceedance, but it is above the 10 ppb action level that takes over in Nov 2027. Test your own tap; filter if your result shows lead.
About Vallecitos Mdwca
Vallecitos Mdwca serves about 84 people through 28 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 surface water, in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico. EPA system ID: NM3503521; phone on file: 801-879-4457. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
That is down 36 ppb from 47 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Vallecitos Mdwca is 47 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, 2 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 11 ppb over 10 |
| 2025 | 47 ppb over 15 |
| 2019 | 4 ppb |
| 2018 | 4 ppb |
| 2016 | 16 ppb over 15 |
Where this result ranks
Of the 504 New Mexico systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 14 are over 15 ppb right now and 46 have gone over at some point. Vallecitos Mdwca's 11 ppb sits at the 95th percentile in New Mexico and the 98th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Rio Arriba County
40 other systems share Rio Arriba County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Vallecitos Mdwca. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Espanola Water System | 12,012 | 0 (not detected) |
| Chama Water System | 1,573 | 9.1 ppb |
| Agua Sana Wua | 1,514 | 0 (not detected) |
| El Rito Regional Water & Waste Water Asn | 1,200 | 4.1 ppb |
| Greater Chimayo Mdwca | 1,050 | 2.3 ppb |
| Alcalde Mdwca | 927 | 0.56 ppb |
| Chamita Mdwca | 902 | 0 (not detected) |
| Truchas Mdwca | 629 | 3.1 ppb |
| Velarde Mdwca | 543 | 4.1 ppb |
| Dixon Mdwca | 500 | 1.5 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Vallecitos, NM 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 Vallecitos Mdwca 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. This system is in the band the 2027 10 ppb rule changes.