Noatak Community Water System, AK
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.25 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.
Noatak Community Water System at a glance
Noatak Community Water System serves about 485 people through 103 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a Native American tribe and draws surface water, in Northwest Arctic Borough County, Alaska. EPA system ID: AK2340159; phone on file: 907-485-2141. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2019 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Noatak Community Water System is 1.25 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0.25 ppb |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 1.25 ppb |
Where this result ranks
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. Noatak Community Water System's 0.25 ppb sits at the 19th percentile in Alaska and the 41st nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Northwest Arctic Borough County
10 other systems share Northwest Arctic Borough County; 9 of them have a higher latest lead result than Noatak Community Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Kotzebue Mun. Water System | 3,234 | 45 ppb |
| Selawik Safewater Facility | 846 | 1.7 ppb |
| Noorvik Water System | 735 | 2.06 ppb |
| Buckland Water System | 600 | 2.2 ppb |
| Kiana Water System | 455 | 0.52 ppb |
| Kivalina Water System | 452 | 0 (not detected) |
| Shungnak Water System | 299 | 2.5 ppb |
| Ambler Community Water System | 261 | 1.08 ppb |
| Deering Utility System | 160 | 5.4 ppb |
| Kobuk Water System | 93 | 2.65 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Noatak, 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 Noatak Community 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. The lead result guide covers how utilities pick the homes they sample. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.