Hilltop Water, MT
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (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 90th-percentile result was reported as 0 (not detected at the lab's limit). That says the sampled homes were low, not that your home has no lead service line. Check your utility's service line inventory for your address.
Who runs the water here
Hilltop Water serves about 50 people through 25 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Stillwater County, Montana. EPA system ID: MT0005205; phone on file: 406-321-4455. 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 2025 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Hilltop Water is 0 ppb across 2 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
How Hilltop Water compares
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. Hilltop Water's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 9th percentile in Montana and the 3rd nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Neighbouring systems
6 other systems share Stillwater County; 4 of them have a higher latest lead result than Hilltop Water. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Columbus Town Of | 1,900 | 3 ppb |
| Absarokee Water And Sewer Dist | 1,100 | 14 ppb |
| Country Haven Estates Whispering Pines | 100 | 0 (not detected) |
| Rapelje Water District | 70 | 3 ppb |
| Eagle Mountain Rural Pws | 50 | 4 ppb |
| Sherwood Water Station | 25 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Look up your address in Hilltop Water's service line inventory. If it says lead, galvanized or unknown, test your tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Hilltop 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. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.