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Lead in drinking water. The US. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets a lim

ID: 3272105 • Letter: L

Question

Lead in drinking water. The US. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets a limit on the amount of lead permitted in drinking water. The EPA Action Level for lead is .015 milligrams per liter (mg/L) of water. Under EPA guidelines, if 90% of a water system's study samples have a lead concentration less than .015 mg/L, the water is considered safe for drinking. I (co-author Sincich) received a report on a study of lead levels in the drinking water of homes in my subdivision. The 90th percentile of the study sample had a lead concentration of .00372 mg/L. Are water customers in my subdivision at risk of drinking water with unhealthy lead levels? Explain.

Explanation / Answer

No, the customers are not at risk because the 90th percentile =0.00372mg/Lit is much lesser than the permissible limit of 0.015mg/Lit.

90th percentile means that when we arrange the samples in increasing order, we can say that 90% of the samples have a concentration less than 0.00372.