Nsbu - Point Lay, AK
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.4 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.
Nsbu - Point Lay at a glance
Nsbu - Point Lay serves about 237 people through 64 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 North Slope Borough County, Alaska. EPA system ID: AK2320256. Ask the utility on your bill for your address in their service line inventory.
Nsbu - Point Lay's lead record
That is down 1.1 ppb from 2.5 ppb in the period ending 2022. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Nsbu - Point Lay is 2.5 ppb across 6 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.4 ppb |
| 2022 | 2.5 ppb |
| 2021 | 1 ppb |
| 2020 | 2.5 ppb |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 0.9 ppb |
How Nsbu - Point Lay 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. Nsbu - Point Lay's 1.4 ppb sits at the 47th percentile in Alaska and the 62nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
8 other systems share North Slope Borough County; 2 of them have a higher latest lead result than Nsbu - Point Lay. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Barrow Utilities & Elec. Coop., Inc. (Bu | 4,900 | 0 (not detected) |
| Nsbu - Point Hope | 881 | 0 (not detected) |
| The Water Service | 638 | - |
| Nsbu - Wainwright | 600 | 0.7 ppb |
| Nsbu - Nuiqsut | 443 | 5 ppb |
| Nsbu - Anaktuvuk Pass | 350 | 0.33 ppb |
| Nsbu - Kaktovik (Barter Is) | 292 | 1.8 ppb |
| Nsbu - Atqasuk | 284 | 0.41 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Wainwright, 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 Nsbu - Point Lay 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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.