Helena North Koa, MT
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 3 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.
Who runs the water here
Helena North Koa serves about 50 people through 80 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Lewis And Clark County, Montana. EPA system ID: MT0003679; phone on file: 406-458-3725. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2025 (2 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Helena North Koa is 18 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 3 ppb |
| 2025 | 2 ppb |
| 2024 | 18 ppb over 15 |
| 2024 | 2 ppb |
| 2023 | 5 ppb |
Against other Montana systems
Of the 753 Montana systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 5 are over 15 ppb right now and 28 have gone over at some point. Helena North Koa's 3 ppb sits at the 80th percentile in Montana and the 81st nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Lewis And Clark County
50 other systems share Lewis And Clark County; 6 of them have a higher latest lead result than Helena North Koa. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Helena Water System | 32,091 | 3 ppb |
| East Helena City Of | 2,114 | 1 ppb |
| Eastgate Village Sewer And Water | 2,000 | 1 ppb |
| Va Medical Center Helena | 1,275 | 7 ppb |
| Helena Leisure Llc | 1,200 | 1 ppb |
| Ten Mile And Pleasant Valley Wua | 750 | 0 (not detected) |
| North Star Pud | 715 | 7 ppb |
| Treasure State Acres Wua | 483 | 2 ppb |
| La Casa Grande Water And Sewer District | 404 | 2 ppb |
| Skyview Water And Sewer Utility | 400 | 2 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Kalispell, MT 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 Helena North Koa 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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. Why an old exceedance still matters: over the limit before, under it now.