Askov, MN
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2025-2025). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. The latest 90th-percentile result was reported as 0 (not detected at the lab's limit). That says the sampled homes were low, not that your home has no lead service line. Check your utility's service line inventory for your address.
Who runs the water here
Askov serves about 364 people through 179 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: MN1580001; phone on file: 3208383616. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Every lead result on file
That is down 3 ppb from 3 ppb in the period ending 2023. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Askov is 4 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2023 | 3 ppb |
| 2021 | 4 ppb |
| 2020 | 3 ppb |
How Askov compares
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. Askov's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 24th percentile in Minnesota and the 20th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Other water systems in Pine County
13 other systems share Pine County; 4 of them have a higher latest lead result than Askov. 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) |
| Willow River | 410 | 11 ppb |
| Sturgeon Lake | 406 | 3 ppb |
| 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) |
Your move
Look up your address in Askov's service line inventory. If it says lead, galvanized or unknown, test your tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Askov 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. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.