Vista Bonita Water Coop, NM
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.1 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
Vista Bonita Water Coop serves about 38 people through 15 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Bernalillo County, New Mexico. EPA system ID: NM3500901; phone on file: 505-991-0317. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Vista Bonita Water Coop's lead record
Against the period ending 2022 (1.7 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Vista Bonita Water Coop is 2.1 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2.1 ppb |
| 2022 | 1.7 ppb |
| 2016 | 1 ppb |
Against other New Mexico systems
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. Vista Bonita Water Coop's 2.1 ppb sits at the 65th percentile in New Mexico and the 74th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
41 other systems share Bernalillo County; 9 of them have a higher latest lead result than Vista Bonita Water Coop. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Albuquerque Water System | 560,326 | 0 (not detected) |
| University Of New Mexico | 35,000 | 1.1 ppb |
| Kirtland Air Force Base | 22,500 | 2.3 ppb |
| Sandia Peak Utility | 6,079 | 2.8 ppb |
| Tierra West Estates Mhp | 1,447 | 1 ppb |
| Sandia Knolls Water System | 1,098 | 1.1 ppb |
| Tranquillo Pines Mdwca | 814 | 3.3 ppb |
| Coronado Village Country Club | 802 | 2.1 ppb |
| Tijeras (Village Of) | 541 | 1 ppb |
| South Hills Water Company | 506 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Cedar Crest, NM
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Cedar Crest, 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 Vista Bonita Water Coop 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.