White Cliffs Mdwua, NM
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2 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.
About White Cliffs Mdwua
White Cliffs Mdwua serves about 323 people through 95 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 Mckinley County, New Mexico. EPA system ID: NM3500117; phone on file: 505-350-3978. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
White Cliffs Mdwua's lead record
Against the period ending 2019 (2.1 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for White Cliffs Mdwua is 2.1 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2 ppb |
| 2019 | 2.1 ppb |
| 2016 | 0.26 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. White Cliffs Mdwua's 2 ppb sits at the 61st percentile in New Mexico and the 71st nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
14 other systems share Mckinley County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than White Cliffs Mdwua. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Gallup Water System | 20,880 | 0 (not detected) |
| Gamerco Water & Sanitation | 1,744 | 8.3 ppb |
| Thoreau Water & Sanitation District | 1,173 | 1.2 ppb |
| Ramah Water & Sanitation District | 517 | 1.5 ppb |
| Yah Ta Hey W & Sd | 435 | 1.4 ppb |
| Whispering Cedars Water Association | 425 | 2 ppb |
| Top Of The World Water Association Corp | 177 | 0 (not detected) |
| Bluewater Lake Mdwca | 135 | 5.3 ppb |
| Coal Basin Dwua | 116 | 10 ppb |
| D & S Trailer Ranch | 109 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Gallup, 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 White Cliffs Mdwua 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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.