Washta Water Supply, IA
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.2 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.
About Washta Water Supply
Washta Water Supply serves about 209 people through 120 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 groundwater, in Cherokee County, Iowa. EPA system ID: IA1880073; phone on file: 712-447-6216. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Lead results over time
That is down 1.5 ppb from 2.7 ppb in the period ending 2021. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Washta Water Supply is 2.7 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 1.2 ppb |
| 2021 | 2.7 ppb |
| 2018 | 2 ppb |
How Washta Water Supply compares
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. Washta Water Supply's 1.2 ppb sits at the 47th percentile in Iowa and the 58th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Cherokee County
10 other systems share Cherokee County; 6 of them have a higher latest lead result than Washta Water Supply. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Cherokee Water Supply - Plant 1 | 5,199 | 1.5 ppb |
| Cherokee Rws - Cherokee Subsystem | 3,315 | 2.2 ppb |
| Cherokee Rws- Mill Creek Subsystem | 1,451 | 11.6 ppb |
| Marcus Water Supply | 1,079 | 1.5 ppb |
| Aurelia Water Supply | 968 | 1.5 ppb |
| Quimby Water Supply | 249 | 0.5 ppb |
| Cleghorn Water Supply | 247 | 0 (not detected) |
| Meriden Municipal Water Supply | 161 | 3 ppb |
| Larrabee Municipal Water Works | 125 | 0 (not detected) |
| Hilltop Village Mhc, Inc. | 78 | 0 (not detected) |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Washta, 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 Washta Water Supply 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. The lead result guide covers how utilities pick the homes they sample. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.