Willow River, MN
Above the new 10 ppb level coming in 2027
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 11 ppb (monitoring period 2021-2023). 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.
Who runs the water here
Willow River serves about 410 people through 143 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 Pine County, Minnesota. EPA system ID: MN1580020; phone on file: 2183723733. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Willow River's lead record
The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Willow River is 11 ppb across 1 monitoring period, none of them over 15 ppb (1 over 10 ppb).
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 11 ppb over 10 |
Where this result ranks
Of the 966 Minnesota systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 7 are over 15 ppb right now and 48 have gone over at some point. Willow River's 11 ppb sits at the 98th percentile in Minnesota and the 98th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
13 other systems share Pine County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Willow River. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Pine City | 3,458 | 0 (not detected) |
| Hinckley | 1,964 | 0 (not detected) |
| Federal Correctional Institution | 1,587 | 0 (not detected) |
| Sandstone | 1,425 | 0 (not detected) |
| Sturgeon Lake | 406 | 3 ppb |
| Askov | 364 | 0 (not detected) |
| Finlayson | 315 | 0 (not detected) |
| Mn Correctional Facility - Willow River | 240 | 2 ppb |
| Cross Lake Housing Development | 150 | 0 (not detected) |
| Brook Park | 133 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Willow River, MN
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Willow River, MN 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 Willow River 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.