Wapello Municipal Water Works, IA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.4 ppb (monitoring period 2022-2024). 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.
Wapello Municipal Water Works at a glance
Wapello Municipal Water Works serves about 1,977 people through 940 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Louisa County, Iowa. EPA system ID: IA5879063; phone on file: 319-523-4121. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Wapello Municipal Water Works's lead record
Against the period ending 2021 (1.8 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Wapello Municipal Water Works is 2.4 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 2.4 ppb |
| 2021 | 1.8 ppb |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
Against other Iowa systems
Of the 1,066 Iowa systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 4 are over 15 ppb right now and 36 have gone over at some point. Wapello Municipal Water Works's 2.4 ppb sits at the 71st percentile in Iowa and the 77th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Louisa County
7 other systems share Louisa County; 2 of them have a higher latest lead result than Wapello Municipal Water Works. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Columbus Junction Water Supply | 1,830 | 0 (not detected) |
| Morning Sun Water Department | 752 | 0 (not detected) |
| Grandview Muni Water Dept | 437 | 4 ppb |
| Columbus City Public Water Supply | 392 | 4 ppb |
| Oakville Water Supply | 200 | 0 (not detected) |
| Woodland Wapello Mobile Home Park | 126 | 0 (not detected) |
| Louisa Co Law Enforcement Ctr | 46 | 1 ppb |
Next steps for Wapello, IA
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Wapello, IA 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 Wapello Municipal Water Works 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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.