Saxman, AK
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 9 ppb (monitoring period 2025-2025). 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.
About Saxman
Saxman serves about 450 people through 127 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 Ketchikan Gateway Borough County, Alaska. EPA system ID: AK2120127; phone on file: 907-225-4166. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Saxman's lead record
That is up 5.9 ppb from 3.1 ppb in the period ending 2024. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Saxman is 14 ppb across 7 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb (1 over 10 ppb).
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 9 ppb |
| 2024 | 3.1 ppb |
| 2023 | 3.4 ppb |
| 2022 | 14 ppb over 10 |
| 2022 | 5.4 ppb |
| 2021 | 7.7 ppb |
| 2018 | 1.22 ppb |
Against other Alaska systems
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. Saxman's 9 ppb sits at the 96th percentile in Alaska and the 97th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Ketchikan Gateway Borough County
7 other systems share Ketchikan Gateway Borough County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Saxman. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Ketchikan Public Utilities | 8,937 | 2.5 ppb |
| South Tongass Water Utility | 975 | 1.9 ppb |
| Vallenar View Mobile Home Park | 225 | 1.85 ppb |
| Ketchikan Water, Truck 1 | 100 | - |
| Kasaan | 66 | 2 ppb |
| Port Protection | 60 | 0 (not detected) |
| Ketchikan H2o | 25 | - |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Ketchikan, 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 Saxman 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. What a 90th-percentile result does and does not tell you: how to read a lead result. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.