Nsbu - Wainwright, AK
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.7 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.
Who runs the water here
Nsbu - Wainwright serves about 600 people through 171 service connections, which makes it a 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: AK2320086. Ask the utility on your bill for your address in their service line inventory.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2022 (0.53 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Nsbu - Wainwright is 4.3 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0.7 ppb |
| 2022 | 0.53 ppb |
| 2019 | 4.3 ppb |
| 2017 | 2.3 ppb |
| 2016 | 2.3 ppb |
How Nsbu - Wainwright 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 - Wainwright's 0.7 ppb sits at the 31st percentile in Alaska and the 46th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
8 other systems share North Slope Borough County; 3 of them have a higher latest lead result than Nsbu - Wainwright. 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 - 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 |
| Nsbu - Point Lay | 237 | 1.4 ppb |
What to do in your house
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 - Wainwright 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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.