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El Rio Estates

What EPA’s and California’s records show in this utility’s water: nitrate, arsenic and other regulated chemicals; lead and copper; and violations since 2016, with the certification that handles each result.

Serves
434 people
Connections
155
Water source
Groundwater
Based in
Anderson, CA
County
Shasta
Owner
Private
Hardness
Moderately hard
The ZIP code it serves

96007

The short answer

1 result is above the health goal. The worst: Lead, above the health goal. 1 health-based violation since 2016.

What handles it

What was found

Lead and copper: EPA SDWIS monitoring periods ending 2001 to 2024.

Nitrate, arsenic, chromium (total), fluoride, haloacetic acids (HAA5) and total trihalomethanes (TTHM): California’s own results, samples taken from Aug. 12, 2020 to Feb. 17, 2026, with EPA’s 2012 to 2019 file for earlier years.

Above the health goal1

Lead

Comes from pipes, often your own

Above the health goal

0.87ppb

90th percentile, 2022 to 2024

In the latest period, 9 in 10 homes sampled were at or below 0.87 ppb, below EPA’s action level of 15 ppb. The action level drops to 10 ppb on Nov. 1, 2027. EPA’s health goal for lead is zero.

What handles it

Below EPA’s limits1

Nitrate

Comes from the source

Below EPA’s limits

2.5ppm

Highest sample; found in 13 of 13

2026 average: 2.2 ppm

The highest sample, in 2024, was 2.5 ppm, below EPA’s legal limit of 10 ppm. In 2026, the latest year on file, its two samples averaged 2.2 ppm. Earlier, from 2012 to 2019, EPA’s file shows a highest sample of 2.6 ppm, in 2019.

What handles it

  • NSF/ANSI 58 look for “Nitrate/Nitrite Reduction”
  • NSF/ANSI 53 look for “Nitrate/Nitrite (30 ppm challenge)”
5 compounds tested and not foundBelow the reporting level in every sample. Not found is not the same as zero.
  • Arsenic
  • Chromium (total)
  • Fluoride
  • Haloacetic acids (HAA5)
  • Total trihalomethanes (TTHM)

What handles it

A certification covers specific claims, not a whole standard. Look for these claims on the certifier’s listing, not the box. Wording varies a little: NSF writes “Lead Reduction,” WQA just “Lead.”

At the tap, or for the whole house?

Lead and copper usually come from pipes and fixtures inside or near your home. A whole-house system sits where water enters, so it cannot catch what your own plumbing adds after it. For those, the filter that counts is the one at the tap. How whole-house systems compare.

Filters with those claims on a certifier’s listing

Disclosure: TapBuff earns a commission if you buy through some links on this page. It does not change which standard or filter we name. As an Amazon Associate, TapBuff earns from qualifying purchases. How TapBuff makes money

Compare five-year costs

The best water filters for lead, ranked

Hardness

Moderately hard, typically 102 mg/L (6 grains per gallon), across 2 sampling points, 2019 to 2022.

Hardness is calcium and magnesium. EPA sets no limit for it: it shows up as scale on fixtures and in water heaters, and as soap that won’t lather. USGS calls water above 60 mg/L moderately hard, above 120 hard and above 180 very hard.

Softeners compared at 6 grains per gallon, salt includedSoftener or salt-free conditioner?California water hardness, utility by utility

Violations since 2016

Contaminant or ruleTypePeriodMeasuredStatus
Lead and Copper Rule RevisionsThe required inventory of lead service lines was not completed or submitted on time.EPA: LSL InventoryOct. 17, 2024—Unaddressed
Health-based violations only. Resolved and archived mean the utility returned to compliance or the state closed the record. 3 monitoring or reporting violations not shown.

What this report can’t tell you

  • Everything else. Nitrate, arsenic, chromium (total), fluoride, haloacetic acids (HAA5) and total trihalomethanes (TTHM) results here are California’s own from 2020 on, with EPA’s national file for 2012 to 2019. El Rio Estates’s own annual report, which it must send you every year, has the contaminants this page does not show.

  • Your own plumbing. Lead results are the 90th percentile across homes the utility samples. Your home’s service line, solder and fixtures decide yours. A certified lab test is the only way to know.

  • What it means for your health. This page reports what the records show and EPA’s limits and goals; it is not medical advice. If you are worried about a health effect, talk to a doctor or your local health department.

  • Anything after the latest data. SDWIS data is from 2026 Q3; UCMR 5 didn’t sample this utility; California’s results run from Aug. 12, 2020 to Feb. 17, 2026.

Testing your own tap

El Rio Estates’s results are for the water it sends out. What your own service line, solder and fixtures add shows up only in a test of your tap, by a lab California certifies.

The 2 labs California certifies closest to the area El Rio Estates serves, in a straight line. Call first: certification is test by test, and not every lab takes samples from homeowners.

  • Pace Analytical Services, LLC - Redding

    Redding, CA · about 10 miles

    Certified for bacteria

    (530) 999-4051

  • Fruit Growers Laboratory, Inc.

    Chico, CA · about 54 miles

    Certified for bacteria

    (530) 343-5818

All 145 certified labs for California

Sources

PWSID CA4500246. Rebuilt from EPA data on Oct. 18, 2026.

Towns it serves

Also in Shasta County

All California utilities

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