North Pole Utilities, AK
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.56 ppb (monitoring period 2024-2024). 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 North Pole Utilities
North Pole Utilities serves about 4,005 people through 1,615 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 groundwater, in Fairbanks North Star Borough County, Alaska. EPA system ID: AK2310675; phone on file: 907-488-6111. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2023 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for North Pole Utilities is 2 ppb across 7 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 0.56 ppb |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 1.1 ppb |
| 2021 | 1.8 ppb |
| 2020 | 1.6 ppb |
| 2019 | 2 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. North Pole Utilities's 0.56 ppb sits at the 27th percentile in Alaska and the 44th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
22 other systems share Fairbanks North Star Borough County; 13 of them have a higher latest lead result than North Pole Utilities. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Golden Heart Utilities | 78,324 | 2.4 ppb |
| College Utilities Corporation | 27,000 | 1 ppb |
| Ft Wainwright - Main Post | 20,076 | 3.1 ppb |
| Eielson - Air Force Base | 11,870 | 1.2 ppb |
| University Of Alaska - Fairbanks | 6,200 | 2.4 ppb |
| H2o 2u, Dba The Fill | 2,400 | - |
| Valley Water Company | 1,575 | 23 ppb |
| Pioneer Wells At Fox | 880 | 0 (not detected) |
| Pioneer Wells | 600 | 0 (not detected) |
| Salcha Community Watering Point | 508 | 3.3 ppb |
Next steps for North Pole, AK
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; North Pole, 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 North Pole Utilities 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.