Homer Water System, AK
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2 ppb (monitoring period 2021-2023). 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.
About Homer Water System
Homer Water System serves about 7,008 people through 2,685 service connections, which makes it a medium-sized system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Kenai Peninsula Borough County, Alaska. EPA system ID: AK2240456; phone on file: 907-235-3174. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Homer Water System's lead record
Against the period ending 2020 (1.86 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Homer Water System is 3.8 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 2 ppb |
| 2020 | 1.86 ppb |
| 2017 | 3.8 ppb |
How Homer Water System compares
Of the 394 Alaska systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.6 ppb; 3 are over 15 ppb right now and 53 have gone over at some point. Homer Water System's 2 ppb sits at the 59th percentile in Alaska and the 73rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Kenai Peninsula Borough County
26 other systems share Kenai Peninsula Borough County; 8 of them have a higher latest lead result than Homer Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Kenai Water System | 5,700 | 0 (not detected) |
| Soldotna | 4,807 | 4.53 ppb |
| Seward | 3,324 | 0 (not detected) |
| Anchor Point Safe Water Corporation | 1,000 | 6.2 ppb |
| Seward Marine Industrial Cent | 545 | 2.64 ppb |
| Nikishka Bay | 470 | 2.7 ppb |
| Seldovia Water System | 418 | 1.4 ppb |
| Nikolaevsk Community Water System | 360 | 0 (not detected) |
| Voznesenka Village | 300 | 1.1 ppb |
| Nanwalek | 281 | 1.19 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Homer, AK 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 Homer Water System 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.