Highwood County Water And Sewer District, MT
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2 ppb (monitoring period 2024-2026). 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
Highwood County Water And Sewer District serves about 280 people through 92 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 Chouteau County, Montana. EPA system ID: MT0000248; phone on file: 406-733-2995. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Every lead result on file
That is down 3 ppb from 5 ppb in the period ending 2017. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Highwood County Water And Sewer District is 5 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 ppb |
| 2017 | 5 ppb |
| 2016 | 4 ppb |
Where this result ranks
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. Highwood County Water And Sewer District's 2 ppb sits at the 71st percentile in Montana and the 71st nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
10 other systems share Chouteau County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Highwood County Water And Sewer District. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Fort Benton City Of | 1,500 | 2 ppb |
| Big Sandy Town Of | 608 | 0 (not detected) |
| Geraldine Town Of | 260 | 3 ppb |
| Loma County Water District | 200 | 1 ppb |
| Carter Chouteau Co Water Dist | 150 | 0 (not detected) |
| South Chouteau County Water Dist | 80 | 2 ppb |
| Sunny Brook Colony | 80 | 0 (not detected) |
| Twin Hills Colony Inc | 78 | 0 (not detected) |
| North Geraldine Water System | 50 | 0 (not detected) |
| Hawarden Square Butte Water | 50 | 2 ppb |
Next steps for Highwood, MT
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Highwood, 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 Highwood County Water And Sewer District whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 1400 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. What a 90th-percentile result does and does not tell you: how to read a lead result. Size matters more than most people expect: small vs large water systems.