Phillips County Zortman Water And Sewer, MT
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1 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
Phillips County Zortman Water And Sewer serves about 169 people through 41 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Phillips County, Montana. EPA system ID: MT0001623; phone on file: 406-673-3372. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Phillips County Zortman Water And Sewer's lead record
Against the period ending 2019 (2 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Phillips County Zortman Water And Sewer is 2 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 ppb |
| 2019 | 2 ppb |
| 2016 | 2 ppb |
Against other Montana systems
Of the 753 Montana systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 5 are over 15 ppb right now and 28 have gone over at some point. Phillips County Zortman Water And Sewer's 1 ppb sits at the 53rd percentile in Montana and the 52nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
6 other systems share Phillips County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Phillips County Zortman Water And Sewer. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Malta City Of | 1,800 | 2 ppb |
| Saco Town Of | 180 | 1 ppb |
| Dodson Town Of | 120 | 1 ppb |
| Camp Creek Wua Inc | 50 | 1 ppb |
| East Malta Colony | 47 | 0 (not detected) |
| Loring Hutterian Brethren Inc | 45 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Zortman, MT
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Zortman, MT 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 Phillips County Zortman Water And Sewer 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.