Helena Water District, NY
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1 ppb (monitoring period 2023-2025). 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.
Who runs the water here
Helena Water District serves about 180 people through 65 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 St. Lawrence County, New York. EPA system ID: NY4430165; phone on file: 315-769-9409. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2022 (1 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Helena Water District is 1 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 ppb |
| 2022 | 1 ppb |
| 2019 | 1 ppb |
| 2016 | 1 ppb |
How Helena Water District compares
Of the 2,077 New York systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.5 ppb; 17 are over 15 ppb right now and 165 have gone over at some point. Helena Water District's 1 ppb sits at the 31st percentile in New York and the 52nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
38 other systems share St. Lawrence County; 27 of them have a higher latest lead result than Helena Water District. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Massena Village | 16,729 | 1.5 ppb |
| Ogdensburg City | 10,064 | 1.4 ppb |
| Potsdam Village | 8,312 | 7.8 ppb |
| Canton Village | 7,055 | 2.8 ppb |
| Gouverneur | 4,263 | 2.25 ppb |
| East Louisville Water District | 3,235 | 1.1 ppb |
| Norfolk Water District | 2,300 | 1 ppb |
| Norwood | 1,685 | 1 ppb |
| Star Lake Water District | 1,250 | 2 ppb |
| Waddington Village | 944 | 4.3 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Brasher Falls, NY 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 Water District 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.