Deering Utility System, AK
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 5.4 ppb (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. 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 Deering Utility System
Deering Utility System serves about 160 people through 3 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a Native American tribe and draws surface water, in Northwest Arctic Borough County, Alaska. EPA system ID: AK2340222; phone on file: 907-363-2136. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Deering Utility System's lead record
That is up 2.5 ppb from 2.9 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Deering Utility System is 5.4 ppb across 6 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 5.4 ppb |
| 2025 | 2.9 ppb |
| 2024 | 3.5 ppb |
| 2022 | 3.9 ppb |
| 2020 | 3.55 ppb |
| 2016 | 2.54 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 394 Alaska systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.6 ppb; 3 are over 15 ppb right now and 53 have gone over at some point. Deering Utility System's 5.4 ppb sits at the 88th percentile in Alaska and the 92nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Northwest Arctic Borough County
10 other systems share Northwest Arctic Borough County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Deering Utility System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Kotzebue Mun. Water System | 3,234 | 45 ppb |
| Selawik Safewater Facility | 846 | 1.7 ppb |
| Noorvik Water System | 735 | 2.06 ppb |
| Buckland Water System | 600 | 2.2 ppb |
| Noatak Community Water System | 485 | 0.25 ppb |
| Kiana Water System | 455 | 0.52 ppb |
| Kivalina Water System | 452 | 0 (not detected) |
| Shungnak Water System | 299 | 2.5 ppb |
| Ambler Community Water System | 261 | 1.08 ppb |
| Kobuk Water System | 93 | 2.65 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Deering, AK 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 Deering Utility System whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 2000 ppb (copper action level 1,300 ppb).
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.