Goodnews Bay, AK
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.1 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. The latest result is under the action level, but this system has gone over 15 ppb before. Lead comes from pipes, not the source water, so a home with a lead service line can still be exposed. Test your own tap.
Goodnews Bay at a glance
Goodnews Bay serves about 250 people through 79 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 Bethel Census Area County, Alaska. EPA system ID: AK2270257; phone on file: 907-729-3661. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Goodnews Bay's lead record
That is down 5.9 ppb from 8 ppb in the period ending 2024. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Goodnews Bay is 130 ppb across 7 monitoring periods, 2 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2.1 ppb |
| 2024 | 8 ppb |
| 2021 | 4.4 ppb |
| 2018 | 2.47 ppb |
| 2018 | 130 ppb over 15 |
| 2018 | 3.6 ppb |
| 2017 | 51 ppb over 15 |
Against other Alaska systems
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. Goodnews Bay's 2.1 ppb sits at the 61st percentile in Alaska and the 74th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
34 other systems share Bethel Census Area County; 23 of them have a higher latest lead result than Goodnews Bay. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Bethel Heights Water System | 2,228 | 3.57 ppb |
| Bethel-City S/D Water | 1,660 | 0 (not detected) |
| Kwethluk New Piped Water System | 760 | 2 ppb |
| Quinhagak Water System | 724 | 0.75 ppb |
| Toksook Bay Water System | 661 | 5.6 ppb |
| Kipnuk Water System | 639 | 1 ppb |
| Akiachak Water System | 627 | 6.2 ppb |
| Kongiganak Water System | 547 | 4.5 ppb |
| Chefornak Water System | 513 | 1 ppb |
| Nunapitchuk Water System | 496 | 4.6 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Anchorage, 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 Goodnews Bay 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. The lead result guide covers how utilities pick the homes they sample. More in what a past exceedance means today.