Hillcrest Community Water, MT
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 3 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.
Hillcrest Community Water at a glance
Hillcrest Community Water serves about 65 people through 26 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Flathead County, Montana. EPA system ID: MT0000430; phone on file: 406-752-8961. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2019 (3 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Hillcrest Community Water is 6 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 3 ppb |
| 2019 | 3 ppb |
| 2016 | 6 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. Hillcrest Community Water's 3 ppb sits at the 80th percentile in Montana and the 81st nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
135 other systems share Flathead County; 20 of them have a higher latest lead result than Hillcrest Community Water. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Kalispell Public Works | 25,000 | 2 ppb |
| Whitefish City Of | 10,418 | 2 ppb |
| Flathead County Water And Sewer | 9,520 | 1 ppb |
| Bigfork County Water And Sewer | 6,100 | 2 ppb |
| Columbia Falls City Of | 4,450 | 4 ppb |
| Big Mountain Water Company | 2,435 | 7 ppb |
| Lakeside Water System | 1,225 | 3 ppb |
| Hungry Horse Co Water And Sewer District | 1,135 | 0 (not detected) |
| Meadow Lake Co Water And Sewer District | 950 | 0 (not detected) |
| Somers Co Water And Sewer Dist | 765 | 2 ppb |
What to do in your house
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 Hillcrest Community Water 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.